Anger management

Recently, I paid for the next term of my physical/emotional therapy (sort of). The fee was much higher than I had thought, but before I realized I already signed up and paid full price. It was one of those compulsive payment moments where I got carried away by the...

Template is for temp + late

At a dinner, an architect friend of mine shared with us that the worst type of project is something that comes with a preconceived plan where he has to cram everything—including his creativity perhaps—into a fixed space. In my technical writer/translator field that...

Unconditional observation

Juno, a comedy about a pregnant high school student who needs to grow herself up as much as the new life inside her, is full of memorable quotes*  including this timeless piece of advice about finding our true love: Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is...

When I’m Seventy-Five

Here is a speech by Dr. Helen Caldicott on Fukushima nuclear disaster and its implication for Taiwan, originally shared by a dear friend of mine who attended the event. It is a fascinating and equally horrifying tale of how the Japanese government’s attempt to...

Acknowledging the differences

I was listening to a friend of mine who talked about how things were about to end with his girlfriend. It was clear that he and she lived in separate worlds from the beginning of their relationship, yet they loved each other dearly and tried to fix things up. It was...

Blue Dawn

Yesterday was a historical turning point for Japan, my passport country. A parliamentary election led to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党 in Japanese) and its coalition take the majority in both the upper and the lower house. For at least the next three...