Why Talk?

   So what is the purpose of talking?  To communicate.  With more and more communication taking place via our devices, talking in person appears to be decreasing in importance.  For me, I sometimes (often?) have a tendency to talk a bit too much when I'm with people, which isn't good, but more and more I've been coming to think that talking with others should only be done when/if necessary.  I'm reluctant to even say that, as I generally still like talking with people, but you have to adjust to how people communicate and what seems to work better these days is not to talk any more than is necessary?

  Of course the danger of communication with text is the delay between what you write and someone's reaction to it.  Talking with someone "live, in person" as it were, the feedback is instant - speeding up miscommunication corrections considerably.

  (The above written on a train while the neighboring seats were empty, enabling me to have my arms fully by my side for typing.  More and more people are boarding the train however, so I better stop and go into narrow space mode.) 

  (later) - So here I go - slipping into that thing I hate - where a person places more importance on distant acquaintances connected via electronic device than on the people they are actually with.  Or maybe it's slightly different... I want to avoid there being any issues and one way of avoiding issues with people is not to talk to them?  Oops... I feel like the more I write about this, the deeper I'm sinking into something better left alone?

  Hmm.... so this is the "delete" thing I suppose.  As with deleting things you don't like on the computer, the desire arises to delete unpleasant issues with the people you interact with?

  Whatever!  Well, it's another day and I'm again wondering if I should go somewhere for pictures after work.  In addition to the inertia of getting used to not going places much, there are the practical considerations of the Virus Era - best not to expose oneself unnecessarily to things.  Having said that, it looks like I'll end up not going anywhere.  But I might change my mind. その時はその時です。

  (later) - I've ranted about this before, but synthetic smells....  There's a guy at my workplace who is always just reeking of synthetic chemical stench.  I always want to ask him: "So, um... what's going through your mind exactly when you douse yourself in synthetic chemical stench?  You're afraid you have some natural body odor or something?  Being concerned about that is a good thing, but dousing yourself in a liter or two of synthetic chemical stench means that all day long, everywhere you go, you're polluting the air and making life miserable for everyone within a ten meter radios of you.  It's a truly horrible thing you're doing - please stop tormenting people and polluting the air!"  I really do want to say that, but for obvious reasons, can't....

  Oh, and there's another person, a woman, who wears a perfume that smells like - and I'm not kidding - pesticide spray!!!  Fortunately she works in another area, so I don't often come within that ten-meter radios synthetic chemical stench zone, but occasionally I'll enter a room and "Hm? Pesticide spray? Who's been using that..... Ah!!  It's that synthetic chemical stench person who uses perfume that smells like insecticide!  まったく！"

  I used the optical drive of my computer once today, and when I went to use it again, it wasn't working.  Now it appears to be dead.  The software recognizes the device being in the machine (it's an internal, but removable drive), but there is no recognition of the disk within the drive and the disk drawer can only be opened (with a disk or no disk) by poking an opened paper clip into the emergency release hole in the optical drive drawer.  I've never had an optical drive suddenly die on me like this before....

  (much later) - After getting home, I pulled out a USB optical drive I recently bought at a used equipment store (sold as "junk" with no warranty) and confirmed that it works, so at least there's a way to use an optical drive with this machine... too bad the internal one died though.

  Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

One Weekday October Day

   (06:43) - On the train this morning I looked out the window and watched the city flowing by... construction cranes, trains going in the other direction... fellow passengers in masks.  Before the Virus Era, I typically found it inspiring in some way - all those buildings, the trains carrying people throughout the city.  This morning there was only a feeling of fatigue.  Maybe just a mood thing, but we're coming up on a year of living in the Virus Era and - as I read the Canadian Prime Minister put it recently - it sucks.  Hopefully the long stretch of living irresponsibly (as a whole - we bipeds) is coming to an end and we can learn to fit in with the world and complement it instead of destroying it.

  I used to write outside on a laptop I carried around.  I got out of the habit when I got back into taking pictures, but I brought a computer with me today and am thinking I'll return to writing at various genba.  It just doesn't work to think "I'll write about this on the weekend" - it could happen I suppose, but for years now it hasn't been happening, so once again I am trying the write-at-genba approach.

  Hmmm.....  I just realized I'm feeling better after being off of the train system for a bit - sitting out in the open with no one near me - the mask temporarily pulled down.  Hope seems to be returning.  I guess there's nothing for it but to charge ahead and do what you can.  Things might not work out but - by God - not because you didn't try.  Words to myself, but I think they apply to anyone.

  Well, time to put the computer back in the backpack.  This really does seem to be the ticket.  At genba, while feeling things, the words come.  Memories fade so quickly.  (Feelings of appreciation for language.)

  (Evening) - Now what.... go straight home or go somewhere for pictures, etc?  I feel like going somewhere and walking around taking pictures, but have mostly gotten in the habit of just going straight home - to get the commute out of the way so I can relax without a mask on at home.  While I ponder what to do, time continues to flow....

  (For some reason, spell check isn't working at all....)

  (Later) - Figured out the spell-check issue.  I installed the program set to US English, so the US English spell check dictionary was installed automatically, but the file was (for some reason) set to UK English, and since there isn't a UK English spell check dictionary installed, spell check wasn't functioning.  I did a [Ctrl]+[A] to highlight everything and then set the language to US English and spell check came to life.

  Anyway - the above details are probably not worth writing about, but there it is.  As I sit outside and am a little cold (although the day has been unseasonably warm), it occurs to me that there's something about being able to write into a computer in a location without power and where it's not ideal (no table, so my laptop computer is sitting on my lap - gee I wonder why they call these machines laptops [sarcasm]), and it's a little cold and slightly uncomfortable... that encourages writing.  I first noticed this phenomenon with telephones.  Before cell phones, if there was a pay phone handy, I'd often call someone because the rare ability was there.  Once I had a cell phone and could call anytime, I began actually using a phone less and less.  Same with a writing instrument it seems.  When I'm at an AC-powered comfortably housed computer, I do a number of things with it but don't get much writing done.

  Anyway... I don't suppose this is the time to be writing about the time portal?  That will have to come later.

  I wasn't going to say anything about the machine I'm writing on, but the importance of it to the fact I'm sitting in central Tokyo outside on a bench writing is considerable.  Back when I carried a laptop around and did a fair amount of writing outside, I was using a thick, heavy machine that had a functional battery, but it could only run for about 50 minutes before being connected to AC for charging again.  Useful enough, but limited.  The machine I'm writing on now I picked up used inexpensively, and while I knew the hard drive had bad sectors (over 600!!), the very day I got home with it and started using it... or attempting to use it I should say, it became nonfunctional due to the hard drive.  So I bought a new SSD drive, which made the machine more expensive overall, but has both dramatically improved its performance (very fast response times) and increased running time on the battery (no motor, so - I think - dramatically less power consumption).  It's quite remarkable really.  Having lived with Nickel-Cadmium and Nickel-Metal-Hydroxide batteries, Lithium-Ion batteries are light-years better.

  Since I'm less enthusiastic about filling up my backpack with a single device now, it's important that this machine is light enough and small enough to easily carry (not super light, but not all that much heavier than a large tablet computer), and it both looks cool and has a good keyboard for typing and a touch pad that actually works (although I did turn off the "tap to click" functionality of it, as I always do).  So it's sort of the computer equivalent to getting a new used car you like, fixing a few issues it has and discovering what a great machine it is to drive in.

  See what I mean?  I don't think I ever would have written all that if I were comfortably at home or somewhere else where the technology to write is there, but a thousand other distractions are also there.   This machine has WiFi of course, but I've got it turned off - so there are no incoming messages from various applications coming in and getting in the way of concentration/productivity.

  Well, it is the Virus Era after all, so I better get out of the cold before I catch a cold that could be mistaken for something else - and.... there's a man to my right a few seats down (and fortunately downwind) who is sniffling up a storm.  Probably just an ordinary cold, but it's not pleasant to listen to and isn't something you want to be near.

  Before I go though, a couple of things:

  - I passed a flowering tree today that was in bloom... clearly confused by the suddenly warm weather as I've never seen it in bloom any other year outside of spring.

  - A laptop with a keyboard can be used as a writing machine, but tablets aren't much good for anything other than looking at things and very minimal text input.  There's no way I could have written all this text in the limited time I've been outside on this park bench with a touch-screen.

  Okay, now I really do want to get away from the sniffle-storm guy!

  (Later - on a train) - OK... writing on the train is more difficult than I remembered... train motion?  No sweat.  Distractions?  No problem.  Elbow room!  You can't touch type without having your elbows by your sides!  I've got them almost by my sides, but it's really hard to type without being able to pull your elbows all the way back....  Alright - I give up.  I'm putting the machine back in my backpack.

  Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

The Key to Writing is Writing

  I learned long ago that the key to writing is to write.  Once you start writing, then you continue - a variation on the "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" thing.  I learned that when I was around ten or eleven, and while I didn't forget it, I ended up in a loop of planning to write something, then deciding there wasn't time, and back to planning, and then putting it off, etc. etc.  At the moment, I got enough sleep the night before, and I'm writing this before going on-line.

  Ah!  Going on-line!  That's something I didn't think about back when I learned to just start writing something, anything, to get going with getting text on the page!  So I guess my old standard idea of "the key to writing is to write" needs to be modified!  How about: "The key to writing is to write, and to start writing before going on-line!"  Once on-line you end up writing, but in bits and pieces in text blurbs thrown about here and there - not a bad thing exactly, but by the time you're through doing that, you've run out of energy for proper writing.

  2020 is a troubled year, to put it mildly.  Most of my life I've felt constrained while inside and more relaxed and free when outside, but that's been turned around in this Virus Era.  Now I feel constrained outside (mask, distancing, disinfecting, etc.) and only free and unconstrained at home, where I can walk about without a mask and not constantly worrying about getting sick and dying.

  So what's the good side of 2020?  Personally, living in Tokyo, which has been getting a bit trampled by too-easy-tourism, shutting down the tourism madness is a good thing I think.  I've been thinking all along that tourism is an ultra-bad thing to base an economy on - something can always suddenly turn it off.  I didn't have pandemics in mind when I thought that, but during the years leading up to the Pandemic Era, I was thinking on a nearly daily basis (while dodging idiot tourists clogging the sidewalks) that some tourism is a great thing, but too much of it bringing in too many frivolous and clueless bipeds is a truly horrible thing.  And once the tsunami of tourists begins making life more difficult and more expensive for the residents of a place, tourism is an evil thing.

  Well, lots to do today... I guess it's time to go on-line and try to make the day a productive one.

  Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/