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That feeling when a pandemic ruins the entire year.

We’re just a couple days into March and the world is still feeling the affects brought upon by the coronavirus. The economic, health and psychological affects in particular are a reminder how volatile and fragile our society can be during times of stress. During the years of my life that I can remember, the biggest scares – in regards to diseases – were the Ebola virus and H1N1. Fortunately, America didn’t suffer the brunt of these viruses. And as far as I remember, it was an epidemic (eventually just an endemic) and the perceived severity of it went down fairly quickly. Unfortunately, thousands of people elsewhere had their lives taken by these viruses, and thousands more endured difficult years following these outbreaks while trying to remain healthy and return back to normal life.

The virus going around now, however, has a perceived severity and perceived susceptibility reading of “off the charts” everywhere. At least, that would seem like the case if you were to go by the content put out by the media and posts made by people on social media. Everyone is scared and worried about corona virus. And considering how the virus causes pneumonia, this is extremely scary for those with elderly relatives.

Economically, this virus has done a lot. Reservations for hotels, restaurants and airline tickets are being cancelled by nearly everyone. Events scheduled for this month are being cancelled like crazy, and even future events are being postponed even further because companies believe this virus won’t be going away anytime soon. I just want to say my heart goes out the most to the poor mom and pop shops whose sales have plummeted. As an entrepreneur you’re constantly aware of the risk, but a pandemic is not a risk most people factor in. A lot of businesses I’m sure have calculated that staying open is costing them more money and have opted to shut down instead. Having to dig into savings is rough, and I hope everything goes back to normal as soon as possible for their sake.

I also hope everything goes back to normal so no one has to worry about contracting the infection and spreading it to a family member, friends or others. The cases of deaths seem to be largely elderly patients but those with compromised immune systems are also succumbing to it.

And lastly, psychologically it’s scary how quickly people can spread a fake rumor and have everyone panic around the world. The toilet paper shortages in Japan and Australia due to a false claim that there was a shortage in the material for toilet paper since it’s from China. Masks are sold out nearly everywhere and it’s worrying to think that someone who may have the virus is unable to find a mask and is walking around exposing everyone unknowingly. All due to panicked people being selfish, but it’s difficult to blame them because we all know the mind just works differently in time of stress and fear.

At this point, who knows how this year will progress. Clinical trials for vaccines or medication are surely in progress but for those to be approved it could be a matter of months. It’s likely we won’t see any of these things until the end of this year or early next year. The safety protocols put into place are there for a reason so I’m confident we’ll come up with a working solution, but in the meantime hopefully this year isn’t entirely ruined. Wishful thinking is how I’m opting to spend this year!

Continue reading “That feeling when a pandemic ruins the entire year.”

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The Internet != The General Population

Note: “!=” is used to mean “not equal to” in coding but feel free to read it as “does not equal” in this case.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, and for my American friends who are not familiar with it, it’s a day when a handful of states have their primary elections for the candidates running for the presidential race. When you pull up your favorite social media platform and scroll through the feed, it’s probably extremely one-sided and filled with the name of one or two candidates. One might assume that the general population is probably on board with the opinions and views that you see filling your feed everyday leading up to the elections.

Well, the 2016 election was when I naively realized how wrong that thought is. It’s when I also began to become familiar with certain terms. One of which was “echo chamber”, a word which in this context refers to being on sites and communities where you say just your political opinions and they bounce off the walls and echo back to you. Essentially, you only hear what you’re saying. It’s when I also realized how easy it is to live “in a bubble”, which in this context refers to living in your own political “ecosystem”. I was never much of a politics person but the 2016 presidential election was the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in, so I thought I would do my due part of being a citizen and learn what was going on.

At the time the two main contenders for the seat of the President of the United States were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The “bubble” that I unconsciously found myself living in, due to the social media sites I was using, depicted Clinton as the candidate who would confidently secure that seat. Well, the results of the election obviously proved that wrong. As a user of those sites, I was surprised, but some of the citizens who invested a lot of time in their candidate only to see them lose were even more devastated. So why were they so shocked? See: title. This little article isn’t intended to go deep into the topic and won’t go into detail about the tampering with election results or fake news, both of which had a hand in influencing the results according to the top-government intelligence officials, but I do recommend anyone interested to do some research about it. But one of the main things that lead to so many people being shocked is living in a bubble and only frequenting echo chambers that reverberated their opinions and did not leave any room for opposing thoughts.

The Super Tuesday election results served as another reminder of how influential the internet can be on a person’s thoughts and opinions. This time I was well aware of how biased certain sites can be and I was not surprised when the results showed something contrary to what the multitude of users thought (and the articles they brought to the top of the feed). Again, this article is NOT intended to share my political opinions and beliefs. It’s only to share my observations and give a friendly reminder to people that you shouldn’t allow sites that have algorithms in place to show you what they think you want to see – or, sites that allow users to vote up certain submissions and vote down others – to influence you and change your perception of the real world.

I know a lot of people already know about this, so it might be redundant or useless reading this, but if it helps at least one person realize the content they see online is not reflective of the real world and opinions held by the majority of people, I’ll be happy. This will save you from a lot of surprise or shock and make you be much more careful the next time you use certain sites.

Sticker for proof!
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J-Drama Review: Unnatural アンナチュラル – My Thoughts

Rating: 9/10*

*Personal opinions towards storyline and actors/actresses factor into the rating. Don’t take it too personal if a drama you liked/disliked has a rating you don’t agree with.

Without further ado, introducing the first drama I’ve ever reviewed – Unnatural! This is a story of a group of forensic pathologists who take matters into their own hands and investigate the circumstances revolving around the “unnatural” deaths of the bodies they’re tasked to perform autopsies on. The group of folks at the Unnatural Death Investigation (UDI) Laboratory is basically its own crime-solving unit, just without their own tasers and flashy badges.

Mikoto, Shoji, Kube and Nakado are the four “main” characters and except for Shoji, each of them have a personal storyline that the drama delves into deeply. This is something I enjoyed since it was tied in perfectly to the story and didn’t feel unnecessary at all. If you watch this drama prepare to be wrapped in a lot of mystery and by the end you’ll be on the edge of your seats wondering if they’ll solve the puzzle behind the last body they’re assigned for the autopsy!

I’ve watched a handful of dramas by Ishihara Satomi and she’s a great actress – that’s one of the reasons why I chose to watch this. I was not disappointed!

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Approached at the gym.

This happened last night while I was working out at my university’s gym and I thought it deserved a little write up.

Yesterday I started off my workout by heading towards the bench press area and was in the middle of some warmup sets when a dude approached me. My music was pretty loud so I took out an ear bud and lowered the volume, and I ask what’s up. He said he’s just starting out, which seemed legit since he was a pretty skinny dude, and wanted to know how to use the bench press properly. I felt pretty honored someone would ask me and was more than glad to teach him how to do it and spotted him for a set too.

I recommended him a Youtuber I watched in the beginning by the name of Scott Herman and wished him luck at the gym. When you get asked workout questions, it feelsgoodbro.jpeg.

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First sell on Mercari.

Had my first sale on Mercari the other day and I felt like I just a big milestone. First time I’ve ever sold anything of mine to anyone, let alone to a stranger in another state! I had a Funko Pop listed on there that was just collecting dust so I thought I’d give it a shot and list it. It took a few days but I finally got someone to buy it. It helps that I knocked off $9 off of the price listed on the Pop Price Guide. Mercari takes a 10% fee, and then there’s the shipping cost, but after all of that I still made a decent profit so it worked out.

I wish I checked out Mercari back when I heard about it in 2016 or 2017. There was a salary man I used to follow on Twitter from Japan that would often post about it (interesting story: this salary man eventually caused me to delete my profile after he harmlessly asked if I was “(first name last name)” somehow finding out my identity). I didn’t think it had a US equivalent at the time, and if it did I just hadn’t heard about it. Nowadays I get a lot of ads about “Mercari, the selling app” on Hulu though. I already use the app, no need to convince me any further!

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I asked someone out in Japanese.

It was around 11:25 AM. I had just finished taking my environmental health exam when I looked at my phone and realized I’d have to rush if I wanted to make it there in time. “There” is conveniently just one floor above my classroom. The room is painted a warm, rustic orange and was decorated with Spanish-themed items – probably the Spanish department’s little base. We’ve got permission to use the room every week at our designated time though, so no worries there. After a few minutes I pop the question, “will you go to the museum with me” in my heavy gaijin accent (don’t blame me, I haven’t had much practice lately).

Right after I said that, the guy next to me swooped in and asked her to go to the aquarium with him. What in tarnation is going on, you ask? I’m at the weekly Japanese Conversation Club! We’re a few days past Valentine’s Day but the native Japanese volunteers who organize the club’s agenda decided on a Valentine’s theme! The first portion of the club I’ve got class, so I can only make it for the last half of the club but even that ~45 minutes or so of listening to natives and speaking with them is a great help! We discussed places you’d take someone out to and also some ways to ask someone out in Japanese. They prepped us all for “yes” or “no” responses so at least now everyone’s aware of what to do if someone rejects you!

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Senior-itis or unhealthy eating habits – what’s to blame?

If goes without saying that your eating habits influence your lifestyle to some degree. Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of fast food and takeout, and the level of laziness in me has topped the charts. There’s the grogginess I experience every morning without fail, the pestering feeling of wanting to just sit and rest, and the lack of willingness to do things I know I should be doing. Before my eating habits went horrible, all of those would happen but nowhere at the frequency it is now.

If anything, this just gave me a big wake up call about fixing my bad eating habits – stat! The thing is though this unhealthiness has caused a positive feedback loop that’s leading to a never-ending cycle of laziness and procrastination. OR, this could just be senior-itis and my mind attempting to shift the blame on my eating habits. At this point, it feels like a little bit of both. Either way, I should probably get up and do something productive.

Here’s what my fridge looked like a few days ago (not all my pizza)!

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Reaching the starting line.

Many people think that “real” life begins at a certain age or when certain milestones are reached. To some, these milestones could be when you begin college, start out in your career, when you finally get married, or start a family and so on. But to reach those milestones you have to stand at the starting line. What exactly is the starting line though?

The starting line is where you stand when you’re ready to set out for your first milestone and begin “real” life. What’s at the end is the inevitable fate for all people, but along the way there are new milestones with each being influenced in some way or form by previous ones. Just as if it were a race, you don’t stand at the starting line until you’ve got the right amount of preparation done. Money, skills, experience – once you’re confident enough with what you’ve got is when you can stand at the starting line in my opinion. Some people are thrown right at the starting line and told to race against the others, and while it is possible to get out there and start running, it might be a little tougher than usual to advance.

For those of us who subscribe to the mentality of reaching a certain milestone to start “real” life and be able to run from the starting line, life up until you get there can seem a little meaningless and dull at times. You know everything you’re doing is going towards the preparation for you to stand at the starting line, but especially when the time comes near for you to reach your milestone, you begin to get antsy about everything and want time to speed up for you. At least, that’s how I feel.

I think I’m really close to finally standing at the start line, and I’m just ready to get running on the path known as life.

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Times a blur.

These past two years for me have been hectic and filled with a lot of changes, and that’s probably the reason why time has felt like a blur. It used to be that I could remember exactly what I had for dinner a week ago on a Thursday, but if someone asked me that now, I would probably forget most of the details or mix it up with another day (although recently I’ve been eating pretty much the same frozen meals/chicken so I’d have a 50/50 chance of getting it right). And so I’ve been wondering if there’s a reason why all my days feel like they’re mashed up together, and I came to the conclusion that it’s mainly just the anticipation of graduation that’s the source of my sense of time getting all mangled up.

My degree isn’t a technical degree like computer science or engineering, but it’s still a great degree and the probability of me getting a great job is still high from what I believe. A great job would mean a higher quality of life, being able to enjoy more of my hobbies, take the vacations I’ve always wanted, and have a good amount of worry lifted off my shoulders. I suppose my brain, in anticipation for all those rewards, is mashing up my sense of time until I finally attain what I’ve been waiting for all these years. It’s sort of a mental standstill in other words, and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. On one hand I’m happy that time doesn’t feel like it’s dragging on and my time in school is progressing quickly, but on the other hand I hope this sense of time being a blur doesn’t continue after I’ve finally gotten a job too.

I guess we’ll see soon enough considering I might just be walking the stage this summer. Although, I still have to take one class next semester to officially get my diploma so my “real” job won’t probably start until next year if all goes as planned.

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Operation Graduation

Key Personnel: Me.

Location: Undisclosed.

Level of Importance: Extremely Urgent

Looks like this mission won’t take much longer to finish from the looks of it. All I’ve got remaining is one class actually, BUT as usual there’s always some sort of obstacle in my way that will delay everything if I’m not proactive about it. As it turns out, a pre-requisite I need for the class is an introductory course which I’ve taken at a community college but it wasn’t considered to be an equivalent to the course offered at my university. Oh come on! I submitted the syllabus and a reason for why I believe it should be accepted to my advisor and I can only hope the board that overlooks these petitions okays this. Because if not, I’ll be stuck taking some class over the summer and dishing out a couple hundred dollars for a course I’ve already taken.

I should know by next week though!

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