Sorry, have been lurking lately. I've been a bit stressed and busy lately, but am still reading your posts, enjoying hearing about the good as well as the bad.
I don’t seem to get notifications for all of your updates and it seems a bit random but might just be the way I have things setup. If I don’t hear from you for a while, I’ll usually do a manual check. One possible reason for lack of comments might just be the fact that many of your posts tend to have a fairly negative vibe about them and centre around the same core topics. Don’t take this the wrong way and I might even be totally wrong on this but personally, although I have never met you, we have some things in common and you seem a decent guy and worth caring about. Most of my comments are intended to give you positive encouragement but if, after some time, positive comments don’t seem to help, it’s easy to become disheartened and also I do not want to be drawn into someone else’s negative vibe as I have enough of my own issues to deal with. It was therefore nice to see this post and to learn that you have found more work just when you needed that extra boost. And once again, I know the feeling of not knowing where the next dollar is coming from and can truly relate.
So please don’t be put off continuing to share the good and the bad but try to look for at least one potentially positive thing in at least every other post. Also I think many of us enjoyed your camping posts and I’m looking forward to reading about your first proper adventure with that.
There are also other aspects of daily life in Japan that might seem normal to you but might be interesting to some of your readers. An example from Hong Kong would be something as mundane as scaffolding. I walk past so many constructions sites here as it seems the city is always in a constant state of demolition and reconstruction. This has always been the case. But what is amazing to outsiders is when they see the scaffolding is often constructed using mainly bamboo.
Anyway, take care and stay positive and even the negative ones, only focus on them if you have a plan to change them. Ignore stuff you have little or no control over.
Were it not for the disappearance of their posts too, I had thought it was the subject matter that has driven them away. Still might be.
Just remembered something else I wanted to ask everyone about, recently I have many people “following” me on substack and not “subscribing”. Do you know what “follow” on substack means and how it differs from subscribing?
Good question, I was wondering the same but too lazy to check. I did however get a couple of subscribers that might actually be bots or fake accounts as it’s unlikely anyone would genuinely sub me for the content.
I always read your posts. When I see one I say to myself, "Oh here is something to read!" I get tired of people talking about current events because what more can you say, after all?
I didn't comment because I broke my toe and it has taken the absolute piss out of me. I have been sitting in a recliner a lot with my foot up. I hobble around to get the bare minimum done.
I am in the health consulting business and I know a lot about digestion. Is your son constipated? Is that why he does that? If that is the case, supplementing magnesium and vitamin C can change everything. Although it doesn't sound as though in your present circumstances you will be able to get anyone to listen to you about anything much.
Ouch, a broken toe! Never had one but can imagine it must be hard on the mobility.
As we all do, the Kid has from time to time had actual stomach issues. Given the years this has been going on every now and again and an almost daily issue for the last year, more I think, we are of the opinion that they discovered that if they say their stomach hurts, they can stay on the toilet for as long as it takes to evade whatever task they do not want to do. They never miss something they want to do because they are sitting on the pot. Despite all the glowing praise for Japan’s health care system, the first doctor I brought the Kid to see only asked for the kid to let the doc know if it hurt where they pressed and once the location was determined, prescribed medicine. When I tried to tell the good doc that the Kid was on the toilet for 4 hours that day and for as long or longer many of the preceding several days, she said basically, “Oh, that’s nice. NEXT” and a nurse shuffled us out the door. Since, a different doc diagnosed IBS, which may not rule out our suspicions of it not being a physical problem.
Another possibility may be they are not drinking enough. I have long had stomach issues that were generally thought to be diet related. Though I am careful about dehydration, I am not always careful enough. To fight kidney stones, I have been forcing myself to drink first a lot of water then apple cider vinegar in water and found that with both, my stomach issues are not as severe…well until my intake of both coffee and beer has skyrocketed in recent years. But, the kid will not drink the tea nor water we prepare them every school day, bring their untouched water bottle back most days. Could n be a combination of these but modern medical science prefers a single main cause with contributing factors. I suspect that once scoped, their stomach issues are likely to miraculously disappear as they will not want to undergo that again, or get worse as they worry themselves sick over having to get it done again. We’ll see.
On the positive side, you still have two toes to be concerned about. Although right now I feel on my left leg that from the knee down no longer exists the phantom tingle of the big toe I no longer have.
Was thinking about your idiot phone. Because of Australian telecommunications upgrades, I was forced into idiot phones awhile back. Plus I have to have it for my music (I won't "stream"), so I need the BT capacity to broadcast to a speaker (teaching tai chi to silence is hard on Westerners!).
SO - I gave in and got the idiot phone - but here is where I draw my line: NO DATA, NO APPS. Sure, I'll run the camera (it's better than any dedicated camera I ever had), and play music off the SD card - but no apps. No browsing, no looking things up on the fly like all my friends do. And no MMS (you know, when they send you pictures of the grandkids?).
If they want to send me that crap, they can do so on email or even FB (yes, I still use that demon).
Disabling that crap (including the "helpful" listening assistant app) doesn't do it all, but it cuts down immensely on the idiocy of the idiot phone.
Re: commenting ... To be honest, Substack got a little overwhelming. Getting dozens of emails a day full of things that I *want* to read resulted in me just ignoring all of it. Backed off the writing as well. This platform is a great idea, but the delivery model becomes unsustainable after a certain point.
Thanks for your reply as you are one of the ones I was wondering about. Not so much the lack of comments, as to what we choose to respond to is up to each person but it was also the lack of notifications of posts from you on your substack. Together, I wondered if you and others were either by choice or accident no longer receiving or sending.
I understand that it can be overwhelming. I too have curtailed my activity on the stacks due to the volume of new material entering my feed while experiencing both a reduction in time available to read and distractions when I do have time.
My "device" is considered new every time my browser updates, as far as I can tell. So from time to time, if I am commenting on substack from another computer, or from a recently updated browser, it asks for updated security credentials.
Concerning your kid. I don't even know if a "bad score" is necessarily a bad thing. In the states, my sister was far smarter than my brother and I and did well in school, didn't help in terms of critical thinking and Covid.
I was a lazy student, but was that due to my general nature, or that school itself never properly invited a culture of curiosity?
For awhile in elementary school, I went on a bender of looking up astronomy-related topics. I basically would rewrite World Book encyclopedia articles and thought this was my bout with research. If my elementary school teachers or even parents encouraged this fascination with astronomy back then, I wonder where I would be now...but maybe they understood that it was merely a flash in the pan fascination. I don't know.
Browser updates may account for some of what I am experiencing but not, I think. For example, I may make a comment on your substack with no issue, but if I respond to a reply you make to it, I may be asked to sign in again and input a code your substack sends to me via e-mail. The time between replying with no problem to having to sign in again can be less than a minute if we are online at the same time.
Test scores are everything in Japan. Tests are not used here to assess knowledge, they are merely gates to throttle admission to the higher level, whatever it is. They are so important that occasionally we’ll read a story in the newspaper similar to this one; a student missed the stop on the express train for the testing site and the conductor, upon seeing the distraught child had the motorman make an unscheduled stop at a local station so the students could retrain and catch a local train back to the stop the needed to get off at. This is huge, bigger than those who have not studied or lived in Japan could likely understand. Though this has changed rather recently, it used to be that when a person delayed a train by killing themselves by jumping in front of it, the family of the recently deceased had to pay huge sums to compensate the rail which had to compensate the passengers of the delayed train. Though, to be honest, I am not sure how that was done as I was not compensated when a train I was on hit a jumper making me miss a class when here as a student. However, if offered, I would have turned it down.
If The Kid does not get their scores up, they will not get into an escalator Jr. High school from which they automatically move up into an associated high school and possibly college and will have to go through this Entrance Exam Hell (that’s what they call it here, though in their language.) for real to get in to High School and college.
I read your posts and the comments which are all interesting, it gives me a view into a life in Japan so different from my own here in Scotland UK. You are going through some very complicated life events which many times I find hard to comment on but I still read them regardless if they are good or bad news.
Sorry, have been lurking lately. I've been a bit stressed and busy lately, but am still reading your posts, enjoying hearing about the good as well as the bad.
More bad than good I’m afraid.
Unfortunately, that's the direction of travel for many of us these days. Better days ahead (eventually), I hope.
I don’t seem to get notifications for all of your updates and it seems a bit random but might just be the way I have things setup. If I don’t hear from you for a while, I’ll usually do a manual check. One possible reason for lack of comments might just be the fact that many of your posts tend to have a fairly negative vibe about them and centre around the same core topics. Don’t take this the wrong way and I might even be totally wrong on this but personally, although I have never met you, we have some things in common and you seem a decent guy and worth caring about. Most of my comments are intended to give you positive encouragement but if, after some time, positive comments don’t seem to help, it’s easy to become disheartened and also I do not want to be drawn into someone else’s negative vibe as I have enough of my own issues to deal with. It was therefore nice to see this post and to learn that you have found more work just when you needed that extra boost. And once again, I know the feeling of not knowing where the next dollar is coming from and can truly relate.
So please don’t be put off continuing to share the good and the bad but try to look for at least one potentially positive thing in at least every other post. Also I think many of us enjoyed your camping posts and I’m looking forward to reading about your first proper adventure with that.
There are also other aspects of daily life in Japan that might seem normal to you but might be interesting to some of your readers. An example from Hong Kong would be something as mundane as scaffolding. I walk past so many constructions sites here as it seems the city is always in a constant state of demolition and reconstruction. This has always been the case. But what is amazing to outsiders is when they see the scaffolding is often constructed using mainly bamboo.
Anyway, take care and stay positive and even the negative ones, only focus on them if you have a plan to change them. Ignore stuff you have little or no control over.
Were it not for the disappearance of their posts too, I had thought it was the subject matter that has driven them away. Still might be.
Just remembered something else I wanted to ask everyone about, recently I have many people “following” me on substack and not “subscribing”. Do you know what “follow” on substack means and how it differs from subscribing?
Good question, I was wondering the same but too lazy to check. I did however get a couple of subscribers that might actually be bots or fake accounts as it’s unlikely anyone would genuinely sub me for the content.
I always read your posts. When I see one I say to myself, "Oh here is something to read!" I get tired of people talking about current events because what more can you say, after all?
I didn't comment because I broke my toe and it has taken the absolute piss out of me. I have been sitting in a recliner a lot with my foot up. I hobble around to get the bare minimum done.
I am in the health consulting business and I know a lot about digestion. Is your son constipated? Is that why he does that? If that is the case, supplementing magnesium and vitamin C can change everything. Although it doesn't sound as though in your present circumstances you will be able to get anyone to listen to you about anything much.
Ouch, a broken toe! Never had one but can imagine it must be hard on the mobility.
As we all do, the Kid has from time to time had actual stomach issues. Given the years this has been going on every now and again and an almost daily issue for the last year, more I think, we are of the opinion that they discovered that if they say their stomach hurts, they can stay on the toilet for as long as it takes to evade whatever task they do not want to do. They never miss something they want to do because they are sitting on the pot. Despite all the glowing praise for Japan’s health care system, the first doctor I brought the Kid to see only asked for the kid to let the doc know if it hurt where they pressed and once the location was determined, prescribed medicine. When I tried to tell the good doc that the Kid was on the toilet for 4 hours that day and for as long or longer many of the preceding several days, she said basically, “Oh, that’s nice. NEXT” and a nurse shuffled us out the door. Since, a different doc diagnosed IBS, which may not rule out our suspicions of it not being a physical problem.
Another possibility may be they are not drinking enough. I have long had stomach issues that were generally thought to be diet related. Though I am careful about dehydration, I am not always careful enough. To fight kidney stones, I have been forcing myself to drink first a lot of water then apple cider vinegar in water and found that with both, my stomach issues are not as severe…well until my intake of both coffee and beer has skyrocketed in recent years. But, the kid will not drink the tea nor water we prepare them every school day, bring their untouched water bottle back most days. Could n be a combination of these but modern medical science prefers a single main cause with contributing factors. I suspect that once scoped, their stomach issues are likely to miraculously disappear as they will not want to undergo that again, or get worse as they worry themselves sick over having to get it done again. We’ll see.
On the positive side, you still have two toes to be concerned about. Although right now I feel on my left leg that from the knee down no longer exists the phantom tingle of the big toe I no longer have.
No like, ♥️ - just healing thoughts!
It's all good. I am still thinking about getting a peg leg prosthetic in addition to the one I already have and investing in a parrot.
Aaargh, matey! Is that where 'shiver me timbers' meets 'bring me the salty wench with the fire in her eyes'?
Savvy, a salty wench wo'd bring a fire to my eyes that would not be doused by rum and could kill even the most extreme signs of scurvey.
Lolol
I still see your subsstack posts. I just haven't had much to say on them.
I'm amazed that the flipphone still worked until recently. Everyone I know had to switch to smartphone around the covidiocy times
Still good news on the additional classes front. May you get even more
I have though that might be the case for many of those who once posted, it is the coincidence of their post also disappearing from my email in box.
Thanks for responding.
Every time my flip phone comes into view, gasps of “natsukashii” fill the room.
Was thinking about your idiot phone. Because of Australian telecommunications upgrades, I was forced into idiot phones awhile back. Plus I have to have it for my music (I won't "stream"), so I need the BT capacity to broadcast to a speaker (teaching tai chi to silence is hard on Westerners!).
SO - I gave in and got the idiot phone - but here is where I draw my line: NO DATA, NO APPS. Sure, I'll run the camera (it's better than any dedicated camera I ever had), and play music off the SD card - but no apps. No browsing, no looking things up on the fly like all my friends do. And no MMS (you know, when they send you pictures of the grandkids?).
If they want to send me that crap, they can do so on email or even FB (yes, I still use that demon).
Disabling that crap (including the "helpful" listening assistant app) doesn't do it all, but it cuts down immensely on the idiocy of the idiot phone.
I will be getting the cheapest model and regardless whatever apps and the like I must accept with it, will use it only as an actual phone.
Re: commenting ... To be honest, Substack got a little overwhelming. Getting dozens of emails a day full of things that I *want* to read resulted in me just ignoring all of it. Backed off the writing as well. This platform is a great idea, but the delivery model becomes unsustainable after a certain point.
Thanks for your reply as you are one of the ones I was wondering about. Not so much the lack of comments, as to what we choose to respond to is up to each person but it was also the lack of notifications of posts from you on your substack. Together, I wondered if you and others were either by choice or accident no longer receiving or sending.
I understand that it can be overwhelming. I too have curtailed my activity on the stacks due to the volume of new material entering my feed while experiencing both a reduction in time available to read and distractions when I do have time.
May things improve for all of us.
As far as substack goes, it has gotten weird.
My "device" is considered new every time my browser updates, as far as I can tell. So from time to time, if I am commenting on substack from another computer, or from a recently updated browser, it asks for updated security credentials.
Concerning your kid. I don't even know if a "bad score" is necessarily a bad thing. In the states, my sister was far smarter than my brother and I and did well in school, didn't help in terms of critical thinking and Covid.
I was a lazy student, but was that due to my general nature, or that school itself never properly invited a culture of curiosity?
For awhile in elementary school, I went on a bender of looking up astronomy-related topics. I basically would rewrite World Book encyclopedia articles and thought this was my bout with research. If my elementary school teachers or even parents encouraged this fascination with astronomy back then, I wonder where I would be now...but maybe they understood that it was merely a flash in the pan fascination. I don't know.
Browser updates may account for some of what I am experiencing but not, I think. For example, I may make a comment on your substack with no issue, but if I respond to a reply you make to it, I may be asked to sign in again and input a code your substack sends to me via e-mail. The time between replying with no problem to having to sign in again can be less than a minute if we are online at the same time.
Test scores are everything in Japan. Tests are not used here to assess knowledge, they are merely gates to throttle admission to the higher level, whatever it is. They are so important that occasionally we’ll read a story in the newspaper similar to this one; a student missed the stop on the express train for the testing site and the conductor, upon seeing the distraught child had the motorman make an unscheduled stop at a local station so the students could retrain and catch a local train back to the stop the needed to get off at. This is huge, bigger than those who have not studied or lived in Japan could likely understand. Though this has changed rather recently, it used to be that when a person delayed a train by killing themselves by jumping in front of it, the family of the recently deceased had to pay huge sums to compensate the rail which had to compensate the passengers of the delayed train. Though, to be honest, I am not sure how that was done as I was not compensated when a train I was on hit a jumper making me miss a class when here as a student. However, if offered, I would have turned it down.
If The Kid does not get their scores up, they will not get into an escalator Jr. High school from which they automatically move up into an associated high school and possibly college and will have to go through this Entrance Exam Hell (that’s what they call it here, though in their language.) for real to get in to High School and college.
I read your posts and the comments which are all interesting, it gives me a view into a life in Japan so different from my own here in Scotland UK. You are going through some very complicated life events which many times I find hard to comment on but I still read them regardless if they are good or bad news.
I always get your posts and I am glad about the good news. That's what I focus on.
Howdy. (The Oklahoma heritage makes this greeting authentic!)
Sorry the kid has potential psychosomatic IBS... The stress of "ideopathic" makes for true physical symptoms, whether it's acting out or not.
Hope there's a resolution sooner rather than later. Victimhood is a lifelong challenge.
Does Japan have phone service compatible with Sunbeam "dumb phones"? I am considering one of the F1 pro models, although they're not cheap.
https://sunbeamwireless.com/
The crew touting a less connected lifestyle advocate for this phone.
Glad you have more classes to teach, work is good!!