tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21300730912255940732024-02-20T16:30:30.337+09:00Reiisi -- 零石Random rants.零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.comBlogger269125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-35229917232461726862023-06-14T23:31:00.003+09:002023-06-14T23:31:39.274+09:00Correlation between IQ and ...<p>I'm being stupid enough to argue with someone who claims a positive correlation between intelligence and all sorts of theoretical "good" things, like longevity and not doing criminal things and wealth and health and ...</p><p>One problem with trying to measure intelligence is that there are many kinds of intelligence -- many kinds of smarts.</p><p>One kind of smarts is when someone leaves a chair in the middle of the kitchen and you stub your toe and say, quite calmly, "My goodness, that smarts."</p><p>Another kind of smarts is when you decide you're going to avoid walking too close to chairs from now on.</p><p>Yet another kind of smarts is when you start planning a campaign to outlaw chairs.</p><p>And then there is the smarts that just decides to get rid of chairs in your own home and start sitting on the floor like certain Asian traditions have it.</p><p>Another kind of smarts redesigns the chair with a circular base and a single supporting leg in the middle where you would have to try pretty hard to stub your toe.</p><p>And then there is the smarts that finds out who left the chair there and fines or sues that person for endangerment.</p><p>And then there is the kind of smarts that just grabs the chair and sits down and rubs the toe until the circulation returns, then pushes the chair back under the table, out of the way.</p><p>I know which smarts I would prefer to exercise, if I am fully in control of myself.</p><p>But it takes all these kinds of smarts to make up a world. Yeah, I suppose even the smarts to sue and/or outlaw chairs.</p><p>Which of these smarts are tested on IQ tests?<br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-38624958937465899502023-02-25T15:23:00.005+09:002023-02-25T15:23:54.349+09:00Why I Haven't Returned to Teaching English<p>I really don't have time to be writing this, and I'm sure friends will just roll their eyes and say I'm using avoidance tactics again. And they probably wouldn't exactly be wrong.<br /></p><p>But there's something that seems to really need to be said.</p><p>I apologize for the length of this, and for not doing the expository thing where I tell you up front and then tell you in detail, and then tell you again. If I approach it directly, most people's immediate reaction will be to argue with me.</p><p>Yes, I am a good teacher. Yes, I have the skills teach English, certain science fields (particularly computer science), and math, among other things.</p><p>Japan, just like the US, just like much of the rest of the world, needs good teachers -- I mean, really, really needs good teachers, in all subjects -- except the current most popular subjects. (Actually, that's, except the subjects that were most popular two-to-six years ago. There's a delay between demand and supply called getting the degrees.) </p><p>Why? Where are the good teachers and why aren't they teaching?</p><p>There are three parts to answering that question, and I'll start with the easiest one first.</p><p>There are a lot of mediocre and bad teachers in the education industry. (Don't argue with me on this, education has become an industry.)</p><p>And when they see a good teacher at work, they become jealous, and fearful for their jobs. And they start resorting to defense tactics -- mostly subconsciously, I think. I hope.<br /></p><p>What defense tactics?</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Reports and other paperwork are not inherently evil. But they can easily be overdone in volume and style, and other aspects. Overdoing such things eats away at preparation time and other important resources.</li><li>Likewise, meetings and evaluations are not inherently evil. Likewise about volume, structure, and goals, and about eating resources.<br /></li><li>Inventing new approaches is a good thing. Trying to enforce them on everyone else is pure evil. <br /></li><li>Praise and critique are important and good. Faint/false praise and hidden sniping are evil. <br /></li></ul><p>For some reason, mediocre and bad teachers are very good at turning attempts to improve things into defense tactics.</p><p>And, truth be told, the mediocre and bad teachers could be good teachers if they would actually engage with their subject matter while engaging in defense tactics, and if they would actually dare to engage with their students in meaningful ways (and not just in discussing whatever the currently popular topics are and otherwise currying student favor and encouraging teacher's pets).</p><p>Why are so many teachers willing to undermine the education systems?</p><p>Here's where I really get into controversial stuff.</p><p>I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said it. I'm not sure. It was one of those guys who worked on the US Constitution and played an important part in the birth of the US of A.<br /></p><p>Public education should be for children who don't have family who can pay for their private education, was part of the idea. And it should be limited to three years, just enough to get the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. From there, from about the age of nine, ten, or eleven, education should be primarily the responsibility of the individual, initially guided by parents or legal guardians -- individual students, individual children choosing their own courses through the school of life. <br /></p><p>I may be remembering that wrong, as well, but I think that's the gist of it.</p><p>Education is a lifelong process, and there is nothing more suppressive to education than to force people to study what they have no preparation for and to delay them unreasonably from studying what they are already prepared for. Public education programs can't avoid both pushing students too far ahead and holding them too far back. It's simply in the nature of systems.<br /></p><p>The education industry itself engages in defense tactics. Schools are by no means the only source of what they advertise as their main products -- knowledge and education. And I'm going to refrain from repeating myself in analyzing what the industry does, by means of those who run it. </p><p>Wait. If it's true of public education, why isn't it true of private education?</p><p>In Japan, <i>Juku</i> has this problem in spades. The Ministry of Education has been trying to reform the entrance examination systems for several decades, but teaching for the tests is viewed as the lifeblood of the <i>juku</i>. </p><p>Teachers who have not yet obtained tenure do not want to risk their safety net if the don't get re-hired next year, any more than<i> </i>those <i>juku</i> teachers who have not had public education experience. Nor do tenured teachers want to risk their post-retirement options.<br /></p><p>Thus, teaching the tests has become entrenched in private education.</p><p>Teaching the tests is <i>not</i> education. Can't we finally get past that?</p><p>Tests are supposed to be opportunities for the students to stretch and evaluate their mental muscles, but they have primarily been perverted to gate-keeper roles where there should be no gate-keepers -- or, rather, where gate-keepers should be there to help, not prevent.</p><p>Tests are being used as tools of exclusion, which is in direct opposition to the only valid purpose of both private and public education.<br /></p><p>In Japan, three years is not really enough to master reading and writing.<br /></p><p>In the modern world, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are no longer enough.</p><p>But we wouldn't be asking them to master anything at school. Mastering things would be done in real world. </p><p>If we want to solve the teacher shortage, we need to integrate the education industry with the real world.<br /></p><p>Anyway, since the bike-car accident I had about five years ago, I just don't have the energy to engage in the constant battles that go on between what should be and what is in the education industry. <br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-52409497138266906022022-05-22T23:28:00.004+09:002022-05-24T20:10:28.355+09:00If I Won the Lottery -- <p>
I don't play the lottery, as a matter of principle. But if someone I trusted
bought me a lottery ticket --
</p>
<p>
It would have to be someone I trusted who bought me the ticket, because "free"
money does things to people.
</p>
<p>
If it were someone I didn't trust, I would have to waste a lot of time and
probably most of the winnings buying off the interest of the giver of the
ticket.<br />
</p>
<p>
Money always comes with obligations. It's an economic principle. It's in the
nature of what money is.
</p>
<p>
You can never really have "free" value. Value must be generated, and
generating value incurs obligations.
</p>
<p>
Rich people simply ignore the obligations, saying they know better what to do
with it, burning their charisma to get room to exercise their own will on the
value.
</p>
<p>And money is a (poor) proxy for value.</p>
<p>
And I have never been able to simply ignore obligations when I had any means
to respond to them.<br />
</p>
<p>
-- So, if someone I trusted bought me a lottery ticket, and it hit a jackpot,
what would I do with it? </p><p>(This is hypothesis contrary to fact. It ain't gonna happen. But what you do with your free time, what you do with your excess, that's what defines you as a person. That's what demonstrates your true priorities. So what I'm doing here is thinking about what I'd do if I had excess. I'm trying to figure out my current priorities.)<br /></p>
<p>
First, I'd make sure my taxes and national retirement/social security
obligations would get taken care of. Then I'd pay into as much retirement
funds as the tax laws allow, both for myself and for my wife. Then I think I'd
pay off my children's school loans. Maybe I'd have enough to fund them in
going back for advanced degrees. Maybe I'd invest some in the companies they
work for. Maybe I'd send my wife to Europe to study nutrition and cuisine.
Family obligations.<br />
</p>
<p>But that is not what this is about.</p>
<p>
If I had a lot of wealth to use as I saw fit (hypothesis contrary to fact in
so many ways), I would use it where I think some gaping holes in our society
exist, where I think I could apply myself in meaningful ways.
</p>
<p>
It would be tempting to provide extra funding for various Free/Libre
software:
</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<a href="https://gramps-project.org/" target="_blank">Gramps</a>,
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.gimp.org/" target="_blank">the GIMP</a>, </li>
<li><a href="https://inkscape.org/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a>, </li>
<li>
<a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/" target="_blank">gnu compiler collection</a>
and <a href="https://llvm.org/" target="_blank">Clang/LLVM</a>, etc.
</li>
<li>and more niche software, like CAD, circuit design and such<br /></li>
<li>etc. </li>
</ul>
<p>
But even just ten thousand here, a hundred thousand there, and a million over
there would tend to fritter the money away, so that would not be the first
thing I'd do. <br />
</p>
<p>
It would be tempting, and useful, to start my own distributions of Linux and
*BSD operating systems. But, again, it would be easy to try to set up a
competitor to Ubuntu and Apple, and that would definitely be an easy way to
fritter money away.<br />
</p>
<p>
It would be tempting to start an English as-a-foreign-language company doing
it the right way. So many ways the current approach to teaching English as a
foreign language are just fundamentally wrong. But it would be a hard sell,
and if I succeeded in the sell, Japanese copycats would spring up all over.
That might not be a bad thing, but it would burn money.<br />
</p>
<p>
It would be more than tempting to start my own social media service, with a
fundamentally different business model. Or perhaps buy
<a href="https://osdn.net/" target="_blank">OSDN</a> for the infrastructure.
But focus on making it reasonable for the customer to own their own<br />
</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>domains</li>
<li>servers, including mail, authoring, financial transaction, etc.<br /></li>
<li>authoring and archiving tools</li>
<li>publishing <br /></li>
</ul>
<p>
and to provide a base community for the customers to reach out from. But I'd
basically be trying to take on Google, even if I'd be doing it right as
opposed to them. And if I succeeded, I'd have to fight off Microsoft's
attempts to buy me out and/or to embrace and extend me.<br />
</p>
<p>I'm getting old. I don't have time for all of that.</p>
<p>
I have
<a href="https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">lots of novels</a>
I'd really like to finish and publish. That would not take nearly as much
money.<br />
</p>
<p>
And one thing I'd like to do before I die, if I could somehow arrange the
money and time, is to define extensions and revisions to my four favorite CPUs
</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68HC05" target="_blank">6805</a>
<br />
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://defining-computers.blogspot.com/2021/08/differences-between-6800-and-6801-with-notes-68hc11-6809.html" target="_blank">6801</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://defining-computers.blogspot.com/2018/12/68hc11-is-not-modified-6809-and-what-if.html" target="_blank">6809</a>
<br />
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68000" target="_blank">68000</a><br />
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_6847" target="_blank">6847</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Wait. Why is the 6847 in this list? It's not a CPU. It's a video display
generator -- a VDG. (I will explain.) <br />
</p>
<p>
But, why? you ask. You think you understand why I want to avoid Intel x86 and
AMD64, but we have ATmega and ARM. They're cheap, can be had in a variety of
small, medium, and large packages, and they can be programmed in C and other
high-level languages.<br />
</p>
<p>
But you need the high-level languages. ATmega, ARM, RISC-V, and other modern
CPUs are hard to work with at the assembly language level. Sure, they have a
lot of development tools to help, but you don't want to work on them without
the tools. That means you really don't understand what's happening at the low
level. You only think you do, and I don't think that's a good thing.<br />
</p>
<p>
Motorola's CPUs were easy to work with at the assembly language level. Maybe
too easy. But it is actually possible for ordinary people, with a little
coaching, to read the assembly language source code and get an idea of what's
happening in the code. Other CPUs, especially modern CPUs, not so much.
</p>
<p>
The one problem with Motorola CPUs is that they each had small design flaws
that meant that, as you extended and redesigned your product, you eventually
hit walls. And getting past those walls meant using programming techniques
that made it hard, again, to understand what was going on.
</p>
<p>
The 6847 VDG was similar. it was really simple to design display controllers
with it and it was really simple to program. It was great for getting output
on an ordinary TV (back when more homes had TVs than telephones). Which meant
you didn't have to buy an expensive monitor to get output from a computer that
used one.
</p>
<p>
But the display window was small, barely large enough to display even a small
paragraph of text. And Motorola never extended the design. (Radio Shack/Tandy
did, but that was too many years down the road.) (Oh, well, actually, Motorola
did do some design work to extend the 6847 design, a couple of years after
they should have, and in the process of trying to play catch-up, the design
ended up overkill, too expensive, and too hard to design for and to test. I'll
have to try to remember to link something about that here, next time I see the
relevant pages out there on the web somewhere.)
</p>
<blockquote>
<pre><code>
|12345678901234567890123456789012|
+--------------------------------+
1| HOW SMALL WAS THE DISPLAY |
2|WINDOW ON 6847-BASED DESIGNS? |
3|THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH WOULD NOT |
4|FIT IN A SINGLE SCREEN. AND THIS|
5|PARAGRAPH ALONE WOULD TAKE |
6|ALMOST HALF THE SCREEN. |
8| |
9| THE SCREEN SHOWED EXACTLY 512 |
10|8-BIT CHARACTERS. THAT'S 16 |
11|LINES, EACH 32 CHARACTERS WIDE. |
12|THE ASPECT RATIO WAS BETTER THAN|
13|WHAT YOU SEE HERE, SINCE THE 32 |
14|CHARACTER WIDTH SPREAD ACROSS |
15|MOST OF THE TV SCREEN, GIVING |
16|CLOSE TO 4:3 WIDTH-TO-HEIGHT. |
+--------------------------------+
|12345678901234567890123456789012|
</code></pre>
</blockquote>
<p>That's a tight screen. </p><p>And lower-case characters were not available in most 6847
designs until about 1985, unless the design included an external character ROM, or unless you switched to graphics mode and wrote all the bits for each character to the screen yourself. <br /></p><p>The 6847 was great in 1979 or even 1981. Not so great in 1985.<br />
</p>
<p>
This is really what I mean by flaws and hitting walls. Motorola could have
extended each of these, so that the walls could be easily gotten past by the time the average user was hitting them.
</p>
<p>Wait. If you are familiar with the 68HC- and later series processors,
you are saying, but Motorola did exactly that.
</p>
<p>
Well, yes and no. Except for the 6805 series, Motorola was always on the trailing edge of the market window. They were too slow in extending the designs. And when the
entire industry took a hard right turn and ran off into the weeds on the
question of where to store parameters, Motorola just ended up following, in spite of the fact that the designs of the 6809 and 68000 were such that it didn't need to happen.<br />
</p>
<p>Which is where I want to focus on in my attempts to redesign these.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">6805:<br /></h4>
<p>The original 6805 could only use the hardware stack to keep return addresses. If you wanted a parameter stack, you had to do that as a software stack, and that meant juggling the software stack pointer with whatever you might have in the X register. Used time and code, and required you to be really careful about interrupts. <br /></p><p>So I want to give the 6805 an additional stack, moving the return address stack out of the direct page (the first 256 addresses) and replacing it there with the parameter stack.</p><p>Motorola sort-of fixed this in upgrades to the 6805, the 146805 series and the 68HC05 and 68HC08 series and beyond, but what they did was just allow parameters and temporaries to be mixed with return addresses on the return stack, which is exactly where the entire industry veered hard right. It's a dangerous practice. (You can easily end up trying to store return values on top of return addresses and trying to return to data instead of code, and this is exactly one of the easiest places for bad actors to hack their unauthorized way into your system.) And it ends up a bottle-neck in code, since the code has to continually tip-toe around the return address.</p><p>Other obvious extensions -- </p><p>Extending the X register, as is done in the 68HC08, is useful, but not the first lack I'd address. </p><p>Also, adding the ability to index off the stack pointer, as is done on the 68HCS08, is very useful, but I'd do that to the parameter stack, which means the parameter stack comes first.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">6801: <br /></h3><p>The 6801 inherited its pushes, pops, and so forth from the 6800, with which it is object-code compatible, which means a single mixed stack unless you want to synthesize a software stack. Being able to push the X register on the return stack helped a little when using software stacks, but it really needs a separate parameter stack as well.</p><p>In addition, the 6801 has an add B to X (ABX) instruction which is sort-of useful for accessing fields in records and such, and for deallocating large stack frames, but it doesn't have the matching subtract B from X (SBX), which would have been useful for allocating stack frames.</p><p>Furthermore, the unary instructions on the 6801 (like the 6800) do not have direct-page address mode opcodes. If you want to increment or decrement a counter in the direct page, you have to settle for using extended (or absolute) mode, which takes six cycles instead of four, so you end up preferring to pull counters into X or an accumulator instead of fully utilizing the instruction set.</p><p>These are the three flaws in the 6801 that I want to fix. They are not even addressed in the 68HC11.<br /></p><p>Giving the 6801 wider addressing is definitely a useful feature. This is addressed in the 68HC16, and I think I might address it in my upgrade to the 6801, but, where the 68HC16 gets only four extra bits of indexing (for each of its index registers) and four bits to extend the extended (absolute mode), I'd tend to add an eight-bit extension register for the X register and for the extended addressing mode. I'm not sure whether I'd add eight bits to either stack register, since it doesn't seem too unreasonable to keep both stacks within the first 64K of address space. <br /></p><p> </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">6809: <br /></h4><p>The 6809 has direct-mode unaries and two stacks. It's almost perfect. But it has a funny omission in the indexed-mode addressing modes. Where it is able to use an indexed mode to do memory indirect addressing on extended (absolute) mode addresses, there is no such indexed mode for the direct page. That means that indirection through pointers saved in the direct page must be done by explicitly loading the variable into a precious index register. It also means that taking the address of a direct-page variable can't be done with just a LEA instruction. You have to use three instructions, to bring the DP register into the A accumulator, move the offset into the direct page into the B register, and use LEAX D,X or likewise the Y index. </p><p>This severely limits the use of the direct page register as a base for per-process static variables, which is something you really want in processors as capable as the 6809.<br /></p><p>I'd definitely widen addressing on the 6809 by 16 bits, either by 32-bit segment registers (similar to the 8086's segment registers, but done right from the outset) or by simply adding 16-bit extension registers similar to the 68HC16's four-bit extension registers. But that's less a design flaw and more an extension feature.</p><p>I could then create a true 16-bit version of the 6809 as a follow-up, but not the way it's done in Hitachi's unofficial 63C09 extensions. Those are rather haphazard, and ignore the design of the 6809, tending, rather, to make it look more like the 8086.<br /></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">68000: <br /></h4><p>One flaw in the 68000 is in the exception stack frames. This is fixed in the 68010. </p><p>But another flaw in the 68000 is that constant offsets in indexing are limited to 16 bits. This means that relative branches and module tables have a natural limit of plus/minus 32K addresses, which becomes too tight when modules exceed 32K in size. Getting around that requires using an address register, which is not completely bad, but it does tend to discourage good programming practices. This flaw is not addressed until the CPU32.</p><p>The flaw in the 68020 is excessive complexity, which is why I would not go that direction. Actually, the CPU32 might be sufficient, by which I mean I would not really need to do anything in particular about the 68000.</p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">6847:</h4><p>Extensions to the 6847 include gradually more capable versions. Sprites are not necessary for every application that wants 64 characters or more per line or 512 by 384 graphics modes, more colors, lower-case characters, etc.<br /></p><p>Also, since I'd want to use these in modern devices, I'd want to add circuitry to directly control LCD or OLED displays.<br /></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Tools:</h4><p>All of these need developer tools -- assemblers, compilers, debuggers, emulators, hardware design tools, and such. Tools also take money to develop.<br /></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion:<br /></h4><p>If I were making enough at my current job, and had the energy left over at the end of the day, I could work on my novels, or work on a 6805 emulator. I shouldn't really need to win the lottery to do that. If I had the energy. If I were making enough at my current job.</p><p>What I probably need to do instead of daydreaming about this kind of stuff is figure out how I can teach private English classes during my days off.</p>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-40380630116553473922022-04-30T10:14:00.003+09:002022-04-30T10:55:10.139+09:00Examining Japanese Semantics: ゆるす (yurusu -- to permit or forgive) -- 日本語の意味を探る〜「ゆるす」(permit もしくは forgive)<p>Japanese has several words pronounced 「ゆるす」 (yurusu), and, together, they present an interesting take on the concept of forgiveness.<br />日本語には「ゆるす」と発音される語彙は複数あります。併せて考えれば、(英語の) forgiveness について面白く語るのです。<br /></p><p>* The first set of semantics I offer, sometimes written with Kanji as 緩す、 means to loosen (transitive), as in loosening a pet's collar. It is of course related to 緩める (yurumeru), which is a more general word meaning to loosen.<br />最初に取り上げたい意味としては漢字では「緩す」とよく書かれるのです。これはペットの首輪のようなきついものを緩めるのようなことですね。「緩める」という方が一般的と思います。<br /></p><p>* The second, which is the more generally referenced meaning, is usually written as 許す、 or sometimes as 聴す、 when using Kanji. The latter writing refers particularly to 聴く (きく - kiku)、 which means to listen carefully, as you might listen to the music in a performance, or to a defendant's testimony at trial. <br />その次に取り上げるのは漢字では「許す」もしくは「聴す」と書かれるのです。後者の字は特に注意深く聴くことに関連し、演奏の音楽や裁判の被告人の証言にじっくりと耳を向けることを参照するいみです。</p><p>In this set of semantics, ゆるす (許す or 聴す) means<br />この意味の場合の「ゆるす」(許す・聴す)の意味は次のようなものです。 <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>to hear, recognize, and accept a person's requests, desires, requirements, etc., <br />人の願いやら希望やら要求などを聴き、認めて良しとする、</li><li>to adjust things or allow them to be adjusted so as not to inconvenience said person,<br /> 不都合がないように物事をその人に併せるか、その人に合うようにしておく、</li><li>to allow said person to do as he or she pleases or thinks, to give license or permission,<br />その人の趣味通り、思い通りやっても良いように許可を与える、</li><li>to put a captive at liberty,<br />捕らえ人を開放させる、<br /></li><li>or to give a degree of freedom to. (This meaning can also be used in engineering and physics when talking about the degrees of freedom an element of a machine has an a particular axis.)<br />自由度を与える。(この意味は工学や物理学に使用される意味です。特に、ある機械の一部がその機械の中で特定の軸に対しての自由度です。)</li></ul><p>This is the semantic referenced in the word 許可 (きょか - kyoka)、 which is permission, often formal permission. For example, when I need to deliver mail to the huge apartment blocks around the train station, I must go to the police station and get a 駐車許可書 (ちゅうしゃきょかしょ - chūsha kyokasho) -- a parking permit.<br />つまり、許可そのものです。正式・公式許可も暗黙の許可です。例としてあげれば、駅周辺の大きいマンションに郵便配達に行く前に、警察署に行って仮駐車許可書 (temporary parking permit) をもらっておかないと行けないのです。<br /></p><p>The key meaning here is that permission is given or recognized in advance.<br />「事前の許可」が決め手の意味です。<br /></p><p>* The third set of semantics I offer is related to relaxing one's guard, to allow oneself to be set at ease, to open up.<br />三目のその意味合いは気をゆるす意味、警戒感・緊張感などを緩めることです。落ち溶けることも。</p><p>* The fourth is to extend recognition, including in some senses, recognition of value.<br />四つ目は、受け入れる、認める意味です。場合によってはものの価値を認めるのです。</p><p>* The fifth, usually written as 赦す、 generally refers to things which have already happened. The meaning here is to allow one to be forgiven of sins, mistakes, offenses, crimes, etc., which are in the past -- to agree not to seek revenge or further recompense or punishment.<br />5番目の意味合いは普通は「赦す」で表すのですが、できてしまっているもの、つまり、過去の出来事に対して言うのです。これの意味は過去にある罪、過ち、侵害、犯罪などを赦すのです。つまり、赦す時点よりはもう、報復、賠償(及び返礼)、処罰(または処置)などを求めるのをやめるように承知する。<br /></p><p>* The sixth, also usually written as 赦す、 is the resolution, removal, or dismissal of existing responsibilities and/or duties, and the forgiveness of debt.<br />六番目も「赦す」と書き、既存の責任や義務を解除もしくは解消することも、負債も借金も借りも取り消すことです。</p><p>Speaking broadly, we can say that <br />一般的にまとめると、次の通りに説明できます。</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>許す has more to do with permission and license on an on-going basis,<br />「許す」はこれから先(将来的に)許可や免除を与える意味ですが、</li><li>where 赦す has more to do with forgiving things that have been done and putting them in the past.<br />「赦す」とは過去に在ったものを、終わっているものとし、赦して、これ以上の償いを求めないことです。</li></ul><p>I'll note here, that English has parallels in common usage. Informal dialog often fails to distinguish between forgiving things which have happened in the past and giving permission for them to continue in the future. <br />ここに云っておくけど、英語の普通会話の言葉遣いにすると、似た作用があります。一般的に喋っていると過去に在ったものを赦すことと、諸らいにできるかも知れないものを許すことの区別はしないのがよくあります。<br /></p><p>Sometimes, the distinction is not necessary. Every now and then, the ambiguity can defuse a dangerous situation. <br />場合によっては区別しなくてもいいです。稀にその曖昧性で緊急な危険状況を和らげることもあります。</p><p>But making a habit of allowing serious abuse in the name of forgiveness really is not forgiveness at all, even if there seems to be a similarity. There is nothing redemptive in doing so. <br />但し、赦しを唱えて、習慣的に虐待や不当扱いを良しとするのが、赦しに見えても全く赦しではありません。贖罪と関係ありません。</p><p>It's a false similarity. (And I suppose, having said this much, I should write further on how such permission to do evil is actually the opposite of forgiveness, but I'm out of time tonight.)<br />偽類似です。(ここまでこの話を進めれば、悪を行うようことを良しとするのが赦しの真反対になることを説くべきですが、今晩にしては時間がゆるしません。)</p><p>(Erm, actually, last night. Translation took until this morning, and I am really out of time, now. ええっ、実は昨晩でした。訳すのを今朝にかけておわり、今はもう、本当に時間がゆるしません。 I did get some sleep, though. と言ってもある程度の睡眠ができまして、ご心配不要。) <br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-31005482377171819432022-04-29T16:18:00.004+09:002022-05-01T16:26:13.376+09:00Link to Government Report on Lack of Scientific Standards in Government Reporting<p>Want to put an unedited link to this for reference. <br /></p><p>I mean, I'm not surprised, but I am surprised. And I'm sure this is going to get "explained", and swept under the rug. This is a government organization <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104613.pdf" target="_blank">reporting on the lack of scientific standards</a> in reporting from government organizations: <br /></p><p><a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104613.pdf">https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104613.pdf</a></p><p>One of the reasons I'm not surprised is that scientific standards are a lot harder than most people who bandy the phrase about seem to think. (Not really any easier to pin down than "religious standards".) <br /></p><p> </p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-42941526350864409922022-04-29T01:40:00.013+09:002022-05-05T09:49:00.800+09:00Beauty Is Only Skin Deep<p>There's a rather ironic saying in the southern states of the USA --</p><blockquote><p>Beauty is only skin deep. <br /><br />Ugly is to the bone.</p></blockquote><p>What you have to recognize when you hear someone say this is that they are presenting a partition they have heard: </p><blockquote><p>Divide this world into beauty and ugly.</p></blockquote><p>That's it. Nothing else. </p><p>It's the partition of the advertising world. </p><p>And those who say this saying are implicitly rejecting what the advertising world calls beauty. <br /></p><p>The beauty used in this world to sell stuff, the beauty that goes on with cosmetics or with personal training or whatever, that's only skin deep.</p><p>If that's what beauty is, maybe it's interesting for a little while, but it's not what they want. It's not what we really want.<br /></p><p>Maybe I was up too late when I originally posted this to a Facebook group, but I've had plenty of sleep since then. It's still meaningful.<br /></p><p>Watch what you buy and what you believe.<br /></p><p>True beauty is what the salescrew calls ugly, because they can't make a profit on it.</p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-54324563421337669122022-02-20T12:31:00.010+09:002022-03-21T01:00:09.216+09:00Are You Meeting with Acephobia? Do People Say You Must Be Asexual? Unemotional?<p><i>(This is for people who get questioned over their lack of interest in sex.)</i> <br /></p><p>Don't ever believe that you don't have human emotions. Whoever tells you that
is either lying for their own power or gain, or trying to use metalanguage you
don't use to say something else.
</p>
<p>
You can hope for their sake it's the latter, but that's not your problem. Just
don't believe them. <br />
</p>
<p> The whole social conversation about sex is so skewed that you really can't
tell what people are trying to say any more. People claim to be gay or lesbian
or even bi-sexual, and yet they claim not to be practicing -- not sexually
active. </p><p>Maybe I'm being obtuse, but how can they know if they even have preferences if they don't? It's like saying you prefer the 68000 over the 80x86 (microprocessors) when you've never programmed either. <strike>Or like saying you prefer caviar to foie gras when you can't afford either. </strike></p><p>(Okay, the expensive food analogy reveals something about me that some might call bias. Cancel that. Even the CPU analogy will meet criticism, unless you understand that, in my opinion, low-level computer programming is a hobby everyone should try. Hmm. Every analogy I can think of falls a bit short.) <br /></p><p>So some people claim to affiliate with the cause of the LGBQT community as a matter of principle more than practice. </p><p>There are other people who claim to be defending the rights of the homosexually
inclined, but they themselves are practicing bi-sexual. What do they mean?<br /></p>
<p>
Machiavelli and de Sade were not the first, nor were they the last, to assign
far more meaning, and less, to sex and gender than can be justified.
</p>
<p>
It can be sort of understandable sometimes. For too many people, the hormonal
flux is the only thing they've experienced that makes them feel good about
either themselves or life. Maybe nobody ever hugged them except to try to
force them to feel better. Or maybe words of praise were always attached to
conditions. Or some other such. So many ways we pervert natural affection.So
many ways we pervert love.</p><p>There are many ways to express human affection, so many colors. I think that affection which is dependent on gender, on rank in society, on social affiliation, on family connection, or on similar external stuff tends to be tinged with gray. </p><p>Affection of vibrant colors and tints will be born of caring about the other person as a person, not as a member of some artificial group.<br />
</p>
<p>Anyway, human emotion has lots of colors. Lots more colors than human sexuality, even. <br /></p>
<p>(And the rainbow flag is now often being used to mute those, even. If you wave it, please be careful not to use it to mute others' colors.)</p><p><i>(Originally published in my talk-about-sex blog: <a href="https://joel-rees-about-sex.blogspot.com/2022/02/are-you-meeting-acephobia-do-people-say.html">https://joel-rees-about-sex.blogspot.com/2022/02/are-you-meeting-acephobia-do-people-say.html</a>.) </i><br /></p><p> </p>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-11561537967844250172022-01-09T19:22:00.011+09:002022-01-09T19:25:16.166+09:00何か発生すると、削除!<p></p><p style="text-align: center;">------(2週間前)------<br /></p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/joel.rees.5832/posts/1278739359313762?comment_id=1287133381807693" target="_blank"><b>ライン共 しっかりしろよ</b></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">「何かが発生すると、削除!」</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
と言う安全性への姿勢(セキュリティポリシー)は安定でも安全でもセキュアでも何でもないやんか
</p>
<p>だから、ラインペイポイントなど、なんかの価値がないに等しいと思うしかない。</p>
<p>(ごめん)</p>
<p>
ラインのグループが連絡網でした。友達のリストを作り直す暇がない。それがなくなると一番困る。
</p>
<p>
組と相手の情報を継続できるまでやってくれへんだからこそ、ラインに金なんか任されへん。
</p>
<p>わかるかな?<br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">------</p>
<p>
というのは、乗っ取られたと言われて、ラインのアカウントが自動的に削除されたようです。乗っ取られたようなことあるはずはなかったけど。
</p>
<p>
(ああ、明日予定のビショップとの面接はライン上できません。 Zoom
でやるしかないかな。直ぐに eメールしないといけない、な。)
</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">------(数日後)------</p>
<p>面接は Zoom上できました。</p>
<p>一応、ラインに連絡して、返事を待っていました。</p>
<p>
ラインに依存したくないな。まだ使い続けるほど信頼するかどうか決められません。
</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">------(結局)------</p>
<p>屈服</p>
<p>教会との連絡はラインがなければ難しい、とのこと。</p>
<p>
また、ライン(適当な侮辱こちらに想像して)らはアカウントの意味がなんとなくわからないようで、全部のアカウント情報を削除(だけど本当は中途半端なの削除)してから登録し直しました。それ以外の手がわからなかった。
</p>
<p>(苦笑) </p>
<p>
削除のボタンを押してから、バックアップの手順がどこかに秘めているようなメッセージが届いた。はっ。削除のボタンを押してからだった、な。
</p>
<p>
(そう、よ。中途半端。妙に残っている。タブレットの前の電話番号を現在もらっている電話会社の客さんがもしかして、その妙に残っているような情報が見えるかな?)
</p>
<p>原因の説明と成り立て:</p>
<ol style="text-align: left;"><li>
以前にタブレットに電話モデムのSIMカードを有効にしていてそのタブレットにラインのアプリ入れてライン連絡ように使っていました。
</li><li>
タブレットの契約を安くするために、電話そのものは違う電話会社の貝殻携帯で続けていた。
</li><li>
その後、タブレットがパンパンなって、ラインは使えなくなって、スマホン買った。そして、ラインをタブレットから削除してスマホに移動させた。
</li><li>
(タブレットの(電話にならない)電話番号の情報がラインのアカウントに残ってたようです。)
</li><li>
去年の秋頃その毎月払っていた3千円がもったいなく、シムの登録をその電話会社に返納しました。(関連情報を削除する必要があるということがわからなく、そんなあるはずとは期待もしませんまま。)
</li><li>
数カ月後、その電話番号が誰か、違う人に使用されることになって、その方は矢張りラインに登録しました。
</li><li>
ラインがその登録を「怪しい!」と判定し、予告も容赦もなくイキナリボクのスマホの登録までさえ、取り消してくれました。セキュリティです、と。
</li></ol>
<p>
あのね。ライン共よ。デザイン上の DOS という意味がわかりません? Denial Of
Service.
提供される供給を客さんの依頼無く切断。ネットの悪奴らがマルウェアを利用してやるようなことを、このサービスを提供する御社がわざわざやってくれています。
</p>
<p>だから、情報がパ、と、文句を言わしてもらいます。 <br /></p>
<p>
さて。家の娘に頼んで家族のライングループに招待してもらって、家族に回復。</p><p>だけど、職場や教会は対面しないと回復できません。</p><p>ああ、それは理由がある。以前に参加していたグループを検索するに、ライン社は年齢確認を要求する。…</p><p>その年齢確認はね、携帯電話の受話器のパスワードを(courgh)ラインのアプリが出してくれている画面に(...)入力しないと行けないのです。</p><p>つまり、ライン社のアプリにそのパスワードを任せるのです。</p><p>預けるのです。</p><p>良い、ね。いいね。ライン社を信頼してるよね。</p><p>not.</p><p>というわけで、ラインでの連絡ができなくなった私の友達、ごめんけど、顔と顔を合わせることができるところまで、FBでも携帯電話でも、eメールでもお願いします。(Twitterはそれほど使っていないけどツイッターでも。)ラインはしばらく、ごめんください。</p><p style="text-align: center;">------ <br /></p><p>(友達の観察ボット GIFへの返事: ) <br /></p><p>Probably not inappropriate, but I still don't like typing my
password for one service and tool into a dialog offered by another service and
company that I have discovered I have reason not to trust.</p><p>I know, I
know, we have nothing to protect and no way to protect it anyway, but you have
to set limits and this is one of the places I choose to set mine. </p><p>(和訳)不適切でもないかも。ただ、一つの供給サービスのパスワードを信頼できないとわかってきている別の供給会社のアプリが差し出してくれるダイアログに打ち込むのが兎に角、ためらうもの。 </p><p>まさにわかっている。何ひとつも守るべきものもないし、たとえあったとしても守る手段もない。保護できない。だが、線をどこかに引かなあかん。こいところにボクが線を引くことにしています。</p>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-63043675183484517042021-12-26T14:46:00.016+09:002021-12-27T16:52:52.822+09:00More Driving in Japan, and Some about Why I Live Here<p style="text-align: left;">Here's an intersection I regularly pass through, looking north. I passed through it on my bicycle today and thought, well, I drive through lots worse than this every day. Let's take a picture and post it. (If I were driving, I'd be on the left side of the road, not the right side where this picture was taken from.) It's a little weird, but not so weird here.<br /></p><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WFBtGmhHJY715oBua_ySPq8hw3LGZo1VK86z73Kl_7A0JV9p8AhA8C6gtlMTAZSR4hx5VuLh0k6F9FAcOwRFgdHCuew3z2nGVbjTkDL6l2tdM3CTULj4PPUf_mXjSgTpVInOoBkf1Z7J/s1600/1640485432014790-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WFBtGmhHJY715oBua_ySPq8hw3LGZo1VK86z73Kl_7A0JV9p8AhA8C6gtlMTAZSR4hx5VuLh0k6F9FAcOwRFgdHCuew3z2nGVbjTkDL6l2tdM3CTULj4PPUf_mXjSgTpVInOoBkf1Z7J/s1600/1640485432014790-0.png" width="400" />
</a>
</div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>Unless you're looking really closely, it looks like a psi (Ψ) intersection. </p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>But hidden over on the left is another road:</p></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmXxHBLbzXWbEXXrrATjXDJfjrpP5zfCNSE6FOE9GRlBB2BbOKtIMPge2o-kagwjJbta4yj_uCMe6tWBZfUq4TVc4Tjkxb3zp15PLq-BafMPJBtVSkIF0Re3WPD5snERdxhMujq6CKpclR/s1600/1640485364006081-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmXxHBLbzXWbEXXrrATjXDJfjrpP5zfCNSE6FOE9GRlBB2BbOKtIMPge2o-kagwjJbta4yj_uCMe6tWBZfUq4TVc4Tjkxb3zp15PLq-BafMPJBtVSkIF0Re3WPD5snERdxhMujq6CKpclR/s1600/1640485364006081-1.png" width="400" />
</a>
</div></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="text-align: left;">This is looking west.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Here's what it looks like across the intersection, looking south.<br /></p></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS__-u0Kprh20PC496Tc8DC19-ucVrJUhnSjll8LOBXNfnH5nSBcY2BunqBdiyxmXp1HeLPQ9dyZYyOdmm4TYht-eUyOlhO5iw2ZJhl1GAb3vEcXgysX4TYrbUThNsGpbn0tITiWTYwk-C/s1600/1640485750155122-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS__-u0Kprh20PC496Tc8DC19-ucVrJUhnSjll8LOBXNfnH5nSBcY2BunqBdiyxmXp1HeLPQ9dyZYyOdmm4TYht-eUyOlhO5iw2ZJhl1GAb3vEcXgysX4TYrbUThNsGpbn0tITiWTYwk-C/s1600/1640485750155122-0.png" width="400" />
</a>
</div></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="text-align: left;">Here's a rough diagram of the intersection:</p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk0qInvGHtEflfZlijTeWEFOQiq2WyGnruFLRg0AkjSbU7U86M59Ldf1EsGWBSYlGjf8e8msp_GCj55XKA19J7waWhRiWqRrVw8r1Jrs5QWJOt6PIRglXal89qv-QrPVahROuVBH5wfDf_-qTymVAH_l_OV97gtav466UzOqK5lZzfG27fj_94eb00hQ=s973" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="754" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk0qInvGHtEflfZlijTeWEFOQiq2WyGnruFLRg0AkjSbU7U86M59Ldf1EsGWBSYlGjf8e8msp_GCj55XKA19J7waWhRiWqRrVw8r1Jrs5QWJOt6PIRglXal89qv-QrPVahROuVBH5wfDf_-qTymVAH_l_OV97gtav466UzOqK5lZzfG27fj_94eb00hQ=s320" width="248" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">(You may note that it looks something like <a href="https://reiisi.blogspot.com/2021/07/moving-violation-in-japan-no-left-turn.html" target="_blank">the intersection where I got ticketed several months back</a>. Not really, but sort of. </p><p style="text-align: left;">On that one, the crossing roads are offset from each other, and there is a crosswalk between with a light, and, in spite of the shape of the roads, the main road goes straight instead of curving to the left. And there is the major intersection to the west that often becomes the locus of traffic snarls. Maybe I should draw a diagram of it and insert it in that post. Not today. I have <a href="https://econ101-novel.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">other things I think I need to do</a>.)<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">No, this is not a "LOOK HOW TERRIBLE JAPANESE ROADS ARE!!!" post. If I wanted to do that, this is not the poster child intersection I'd use, by far. And that is not what I want to say, so I'm not going to take the time to run out to where I work and take pictures of the three or four or five locations that I think are most dangerous on my daily mail route. Be aware that, compared to those, this intersection is no problems at all. </p><p style="text-align: left;">What I want to say is, well, it's going to take me a few paragraphs, please bear with me.<br /></p></div><div><p style="text-align: left;">When I first came back to Japan with my wife, I thought I was a pretty decent driver. Not that I thought I was equal to the roads and traffic in Osaka, but I thought I was pretty good at it. Two years driving as a job in the States in addition to what, fifteen, sixteen years of regular daily driving? You know, pride.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I knocked around for a couple or three months looking for work, then friends at church gave me some of their private English students they didn't have enough time to teach. But that was out in the country, and I was teaching in their homes, so I had to drive.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So I went and got a Japanese license. </p><p style="text-align: left;">At the time, all I had to do was go to the local <a href="https://english.jaf.or.jp/" target="_blank">Japan Automobile Federation</a> office and get my existing Stateside license translated, then take the translation to the nearest office of the Hyōgo Prefectural Police that handled new drivers' license applications for foreigners -- the police office in Akashi. </p><p style="text-align: left;">About four months later, they changed the law, and I'd have had to take the written test. I think that would have been okay, I had looked over the materials, and I was pretty sure I could pass the written test with a high enough score. Probably. But I would have had to study for a couple of weeks first, and I might have not passed on the first try.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Nowadays, they also require a skills test (driving test). That probably would have been okay, too. Maybe not on the first try, though. Probably would have taken me a couple more weeks, which might have been long enough to have missed the opportunity to take over teaching those classes.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Technically, they don't require attendance at a driving school in Japan, even for true first-timers. But they strongly recommend it for those with no driving experience, and it can be difficult navigating through the application process if you don't have a school to prepare your paperwork for you -- even for those born and raised here. At least, that was how it was. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I should check if it still is.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Yes, it still is, as of the date I am writing this. You can skip the school if you can pass the tests, even if you were born and raised here. JAF even has <a href="https://jaf.or.jp/common/kuruma-qa/category-procedure/subcategory-license/faq310" target="_blank">web pages detailing two ways to do it</a>. But it is not easy.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Am I glad I didn't have to do any of that?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Yes. I even consider it a blessing that I was able to avoid the tests. I didn't have time or money to fail either test, much less attend a driving school in Japan.</p><p style="text-align: left;">(A blessing, you say? Wasn't it just a matter of timing and chance?)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Well, when my job search Stateside wasn't going well after graduation and my wife said, let's go to Japan, you can always teach English, I -- </p><p style="text-align: left;">I don't know how to describe this. It was more than a hunch to me, but agnostics and skeptics would see no reason to call it anything but a hunch.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I knew better than to move to Japan, you see. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I had spent two years in Japan as a missionary. I knew how different the language and customs are here.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And I understood the difficulties a primary breadwinner would have in a foreign country, living with unfamiliar customs, trying to learn a foreign language for real use -- not just to pass a college exam. That is, I had some idea of just how bad it could be.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I have, at some points, compared it to going back to kindergarten and having to do all that again. </p><p style="text-align: left;">You get a lot of "You should understand this, with your experience." Then, when the language and the hidden assumptions have you doing what they think is the exact wrong thing, and you don't have the words to explain in their language why it's actually the right thing, they start treating you like a kindergartener. And then some of your coworkers start treating you like deadwood and trying to get rid of you. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I'm not going to tell you just how bad it got with a couple of the companies I worked for when I was determined not to give up, but it got bad enough to sour me on both software engineering and teaching English.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">And I had some idea of how bad it could be from experience. I grew up in west Texas, and some of my friends' parents were from the other side of the border. I saw what they experienced. We do the same things to foreigners in the States, even though we have a lot more experience with the melting pot, and we know we should not.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Coming here was completely illogical. Completely against reason. Completely inadvisable.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But I knew I should come with her and I knew it was then, no waiting. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The license was not the only reason, but it's the only reason I'll bring up here today.<br /></p></div><div><p style="text-align: left;">Call it a hunch. Call it guidance. Call it inspiration. Call it revelation. Call it crazy.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It was crazy. Crazy according to the wisdom of man.</p><p style="text-align: left;">No, I do not recommend cross-cultural
marriage. Talk to me privately, and I can tell you all sorts of reasons
not to do it. </p><p style="text-align: left;">But God's wisdom surpasses that of mortal man. -- Name those
verses? Isaiah 55 and Doctrine and Covenants 1, just off the top of my
head. -- I apparently needed this struggle, or something like it. I apparently still need it. Talk to me privately, and I can tell you something about that, too.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Back to driving in Japan, there are all sorts of things that are just different from wherever you learned to drive, unless you learned here. Driving on the left is not even the beginning of it. (Use your horn to say, "Thanks"?) <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Those first two years, when I was driving around to teach English, I really was not driving wrong -- or it wouldn't have been wrong in (most of) the US. But I was lucky. No, I had angels watching over me, to keep me from doing myself and others harm by what I didn't understand. </p><p style="text-align: left;">No, I'm not talking about the time I went on the off ramp and found myself facing traffic. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Well, I had protection that time, too, and the mistake was partly a result of not being familiar with the roads enough to recognize I was reverting to the US side of the road before I actually made it onto the highway. So I guess I'm talking about that time, too.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">But driving for the Post Office these last two years has given me an appreciation for all sorts of little things that work here to make driving here safer and an overall better experience for everyone, many of which would simply not work in the US.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Each country has it's own road rules. </p><p style="text-align: left;">If I had had a chance, had the time and money, I think I would have liked to have gotten my license here the way my wife did -- take a month to go to driving school and take the practice tests, both driving and written. If I had the time and money now, it would be nice to go back for the equivalent of a commercial license, although I really do not want to drive 20 ton trucks for a living here. It would be a chance to learn more of the language, both verbal/written and non-verbal/non-written, and it would help me figure out better what to do when I get in awkward situations.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On the other hand, constant awareness that I should avoid awkward situations is not a bad strategy at my age, either. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And, back again to Pharisees and the habits we humans tend to have of depending too much on rules, life is full of stuff where we don't have time or other resources to take the path that appears most optimal. </p><p style="text-align: left;">We shouldn't deliberately make things harder on each other by choosing less optimal paths when we have a choice, but when the most optimal path is not available, it's better to take a path that is available.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And (as my wife says, I always say one thing too many) this, by the way, is the difference between "The perfect is the enemy of the good." and "Human ideals are no match for the wisdom of God."<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-67285237332396860422021-11-07T20:10:00.006+09:002021-11-09T21:18:17.588+09:00ベランダから、日の暮れにお月さまと金星さま The Moon and Venus from the Veranda at Sunset<p>妻の提案、 sunset (日本語で何だった?忘れた、太陽の暮れるところ。調べたら出てくるやろう。調べたくない。ああ、)夕焼け、日没時の写真。</p><p> 左上の隅、物干し台の上に微かに見える月さま。拡大すると三日月だとわかる。携帯は矢張り、星等がきれいに映らへん。<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-9PpZ0D2RtAalPbPayt31zQgnp-4VLncOgn7bCXoSlI38dYyprxF07lA4JSFDx52P5P_K9j7cdJ-IiYqwMm9XjZwTnmyIaGttL5MCv8dxAuQfcWLdw-p3sEzqOJWkmmpzBmbf9D1bp6Z/s1960/DSC_0296_moon_n_dryer_mid.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1470" data-original-width="1960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-9PpZ0D2RtAalPbPayt31zQgnp-4VLncOgn7bCXoSlI38dYyprxF07lA4JSFDx52P5P_K9j7cdJ-IiYqwMm9XjZwTnmyIaGttL5MCv8dxAuQfcWLdw-p3sEzqOJWkmmpzBmbf9D1bp6Z/w640-h480/DSC_0296_moon_n_dryer_mid.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p> </p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p></p><p>外に出て、月の左上にまた星が見える。(調べたらわかるだろう。調べたくあらへん。)美星ではなく、金星だそうです。Venus. 美星にはなっているはずではない?だって、美の女神だっただろう?愛美神?さあ。</p><p>拡大するとぶれて、丸には見えへん。</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjXP6RgbPOwjFldY93GlOMcJgcvMmA6sScJF9iOOH8Cnc3ERbjfjBXPZ4DZw2i_exiC54mTfE4G7-o2j4PopImCgkqWNw02e24M8V8pYGIX_q7zg_bHolbdKMTppn-qPmHNKl6xtHPfSCy/s1960/DSC_0297_moon_n_venus_mid.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1470" data-original-width="1960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjXP6RgbPOwjFldY93GlOMcJgcvMmA6sScJF9iOOH8Cnc3ERbjfjBXPZ4DZw2i_exiC54mTfE4G7-o2j4PopImCgkqWNw02e24M8V8pYGIX_q7zg_bHolbdKMTppn-qPmHNKl6xtHPfSCy/w640-h480/DSC_0297_moon_n_venus_mid.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p>正に、皆様のブラウザーの負担にならないように、縮小して投稿しています。元の解像度でも一緒。しかたない。ぶれたからです。</p><p>明日もまた郵便配達。</p><p> </p><p>[JMR202111091947 -- in English, by request --<br /></p>Google Translate (LOL):<p><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql b0tq1wua a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" dir="auto" lang="en"></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">My
wife's suggestion, sunset (What was it in Japanese? I forgot, where the
sun goes down. I'll come out when I look it up. I don't want to look it
up. Oh) A photo of the sunset and sunset.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The
moon is faintly visible on the clothesline in the upper left corner. If
you expand it, you can see that it is a crescent moon. The mobile phone
does not show the arrows, stars, etc. beautifully. </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">-----------------<br /></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Go
outside and see another star in the upper left corner of the moon. (If
you look it up, you'll know. I don't want to look it up.) It's not
Venus, but Venus. Venus. Shouldn't it be a beautiful star? Because it
was the goddess of beauty, right? Aimi God? here we go.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><div class="ecm0bbzt e5nlhep0 a8c37x1j"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql b0tq1wua a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" dir="auto" lang="en"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">When enlarged, it blurs and does not look like a circle. </div></div></span></div>-----------------</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><div class="ecm0bbzt e5nlhep0 a8c37x1j"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql b0tq1wua a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" dir="auto" lang="en"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">I'm
posting it in a reduced size so as not to burden your browser. Same
with the original resolution. it can not be helped. Because it was
shaken.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Mail delivery again tomorrow. </div></div></span></div> </div></div>============<br /><p></p><p>What I (think I) said:</p><p>At my wife's suggestion, sunset. (What is that in Japanese? The sun
going down. I forget. It should be easy to look up, but I don't want to. Ah, yeah,) 夕焼け (ゆうやけ yū-yake == sunset sky)、日没(にちぼつ nichi-botsu == setting
sun -- A photo of the sky painted colors by the setting sun.</p><p>The
moon is barely visible in the upper left corner, above the laundry rack.
If you enlarge the photo, you can see that it is a crescent moon. My
phone doesn't take good pictures of the stars, no surprise there.</p><p>Going outside, there's another star visible above and to the left of the moon. I'm sure I could find it if I look it up. Don't want to look it up.) Venus. Not 美星 (びせい bisei == beautiful star), 金星 (きんせい kinsei == Venus). Shouldn't it be the beautiful star? She was the goddess of beauty, wasn't she? 愛 (あい ai == love) 美 (び bi == beauty) 神 (じん jin == god) Goddess of love and beauty? Well, ...</p><p>If you enlarge it, it's blurred and does not look round.<br /></p><p>I'm posting these in reduced resolution so they don't load your browser down too much, but it's the same in full resolution -- blurred. No help for it.<br /></p><p>Back to delivering the mail tomorrow.</p><p>]<br /></p><p></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-17484766202972395052021-07-12T13:18:00.009+09:002021-07-12T21:21:52.677+09:00Moving Violation in Japan -- No Left Turn<p>
Got a ticket for a moving violation while I was out delivering mail a
few days back. Here's the controlled crosswalk just before where it happened:
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRviBVirfr4QNJdhTPlS6LubfDbnmTtV406v5LCs-RPRI3_By1cfwH2Xlm_7btZbm1ZVyzO4c18yr-_mDoVbFlrYUaKkLMoM7K9hOq1Y5HJjksJS-TlI6QjjEa3jNC9IXi3RzJP045NRCf/s749/crosswalk_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="749" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRviBVirfr4QNJdhTPlS6LubfDbnmTtV406v5LCs-RPRI3_By1cfwH2Xlm_7btZbm1ZVyzO4c18yr-_mDoVbFlrYUaKkLMoM7K9hOq1Y5HJjksJS-TlI6QjjEa3jNC9IXi3RzJP045NRCf/w400-h301/crosswalk_lo.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
DANGER! DANGER!<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<p>
I tried pull out the color in the traffic light with GIMP, but there was just
too much ambient light for the cellphone camera to pick it out in the original
image. The traffic light doesn't really have anything to do with it, anyway.
</p>
<p>
If you look carefully, there are two roads going left ahead of me here.
</p>
<p>
(There's also one more road going right, just beyond the crosswalk, but it
isn't relevant to what happened.<br />
</p>
<p>
Also, I took this picture from the sidewalk, not the microvan I drive. You can
see my empty box on its side there on the walk in front of the tree in the
image above.
</p>
<p>
The traffic officer, by the way, is standing behind the trees so I can take
the picture, or perhaps around the corner on the left.)
</p>
<p>Here's the first of the roads to the left:<br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRSlB6AAJukXPPqGLVThz_XviqHqi4fp19vjTHZlwEPFRQ3_WEMoHO3az88p8mul7XjwX5O9pBRB8evWwQel-ve71JW0D5gTQuGyDZsBIgGJ9qhExdHYBdUjhe8_4A-EARlfj67dqzNEo4/s500/tiny_left_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRSlB6AAJukXPPqGLVThz_XviqHqi4fp19vjTHZlwEPFRQ3_WEMoHO3az88p8mul7XjwX5O9pBRB8evWwQel-ve71JW0D5gTQuGyDZsBIgGJ9qhExdHYBdUjhe8_4A-EARlfj67dqzNEo4/w300-h400/tiny_left_lo.jpeg" width="300" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Too tight to park.<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
This is from the other side of the crosswalk, and now you can plainly see it.
The second to the left is a bit more visible on the other side of the trees.
Again, the officer is standing either behind the trees or around the corner,
to leave me free to take the picture.
</p>
<p>
This first road to the left is fully legal to turn on. If I were one of the
motorbike crew, I'd turn left here and park right in front of the front
entrance of that apartment building on the left, where I deliver between
twenty and a hundred fifty pieces of mail each day. But I drive a microvan,
and it'd block traffic even if I parked half on the sidewalk.<br />
</p>
<p>
So, like a good driver, I haven't been parking there. I've been going to the
next road and turning in, which means I have to walk about forty meters. But I
can avoid blocking traffic.
</p>
<p>All good, right?</p>
<p>
If you look carefully about the center of the above image, you'll notice a
blot of blue. Here's what that blot of blue is:
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKkKNbiaoqNnv0XhRDtMb4xrdBWwsrwGll3nPtPOzHIVnW5FWBE90FrppwZL1IiZVJmuVH1VyHnnl0OCDDl56FLylHuFF_MgnOQ2IyfXNBOz3o4X4Kx_2M79jn69iu-2W-_uMtjjHra2yV/s404/straight_sign_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="404" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKkKNbiaoqNnv0XhRDtMb4xrdBWwsrwGll3nPtPOzHIVnW5FWBE90FrppwZL1IiZVJmuVH1VyHnnl0OCDDl56FLylHuFF_MgnOQ2IyfXNBOz3o4X4Kx_2M79jn69iu-2W-_uMtjjHra2yV/w400-h243/straight_sign_lo.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
What is that spot of blue?<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<p>
I've been missing that sign, almost every day since they gave me this route.
(Sometimes I come from the other direction, depending on what I'm
carrying. In that case, this sign doesn't matter.)
</p>
<p>
Again, these pictures are from the sidewalk. (I'm not going to take pictures
as I drive past. Playing with a camera while you drive is dangerous.) This
sign is going to be more visible from the driver's seat of a vehicle.
<br />
</p>
<p>
Not seeing and paying attention to signs like this in Japan is a no-no.<br />
</p>
<p>
Here's where I've been turning in to park and deliver the mail, the street the
white truck is about to pass, that seems to have the entrance slanting in on
the left:
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJj_1RBgwJToCyIdK2jdanKcHO3wKRrq_9DXo7b1yAZvdBmk0zVr-zfoNa5_hljTUE660rmuK2kfX7a15THQ-tUvizlGCEH2iXvAHiV1Nqg6Dso08yulZekIy5_D4eD1z0G8UbAt4dwfNU/s741/no_left_turn_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="741" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJj_1RBgwJToCyIdK2jdanKcHO3wKRrq_9DXo7b1yAZvdBmk0zVr-zfoNa5_hljTUE660rmuK2kfX7a15THQ-tUvizlGCEH2iXvAHiV1Nqg6Dso08yulZekIy5_D4eD1z0G8UbAt4dwfNU/w400-h301/no_left_turn_lo.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Go straight, young man!<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<p>
If I took more pictures I could show that there are no one-way signs. This is
not a one-way street coming out or anything, so turning left won't have you
going the wrong way on the street. If you don't notice that sign, you're
thinking that intersection is built for turning left into, right? <br />
</p>
<p>
Well, that's what I have been thinking for the last six months or so. (My
failing to obey that sign was probably part of the reason the officers were
there.)<br />
</p>
<p>
The traffic officer is standing out of the picture here, again, for me.
Friendly, but firm. She even pointed up to the sign as I drove past her (about
twenty minutes before I took this picture), so I would have a chance to see
the sign and change my mind about turning. And not get ticketed.<br />
</p>
<p>
If an officer is trying to tell you something, try to figure it out as fast as
you can.<br />
</p>
<p>Here's a close-up of the sign:</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsZ6OKFkBqB43BRkCnt9TbUiRSm3mUPnUgOVesptqhCSiPWbfMrSmXUE2nwChGmPHQUbEHZm6uP5-SEYHSLrkqUZ4FchfTNEjI2S-eT-GehFNwCAFEoCe2-lvGxi15Zmv5q-CIE7JaYmS/s537/motorized_straight_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="529" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsZ6OKFkBqB43BRkCnt9TbUiRSm3mUPnUgOVesptqhCSiPWbfMrSmXUE2nwChGmPHQUbEHZm6uP5-SEYHSLrkqUZ4FchfTNEjI2S-eT-GehFNwCAFEoCe2-lvGxi15Zmv5q-CIE7JaYmS/s320/motorized_straight_lo.jpeg" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Yes, that means you.<br />No Left Turn!<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<p>Straight arrow with no turning arrows means, "Go straight."</p>
<p>"Do not pass Go. Do not collect ..." No, that's a different game.</p>
<p>
The <i>kanji</i> beneath it say, 「自動車・原付」 -- <i>"JIDŌSHA/GENZUKI".</i><br />
</p>
<p>
That's "AUTOMOBILES and MOTORIZED BIKES" (essentially, all motorized
vehicles).
</p>
<p>
(How you Latinize/Romanize 「原付」 is a bit subject to vagueries -- By
consonant column, the second character is read in the D column, so it would be
<i>"GENDUKI"</i> or <i>"GENDZUKI",</i> but the hard D goes away when you read
it out loud, so it's usually Romanized as I did above, without the D.)<br />
</p>
<p>
So. No turns. There's no road to the right at this point anyway, so it means
no left turn.<br />
</p>
<p>
Even though the street is not one-way. Even with the street built the way it
is. <br />
</p>
<p>
Yeah, the sign's a little hidden in the trees. But I've been driving past that
sign every day. I've even been walking beneath it going and coming every time
I park back there.
</p>
<p>
Somehow, maybe because of the construction of the road, I've just not been
seeing that sign -- or maybe not been paying attention to it or not thinking
that it must mean me, too.<br />
</p>
<p>
Well, so I have to go pay a JPY 7000 fine today. Don't have to appear in court
if I pay the fine. (Would I try to contest it? More below.) Just drop by a
Post Office or Bank and they can transfer the money for me.
</p>
<p>
Oh. And I'm two points down for a few months. Gotta be extra careful now.<br />
</p>
<p>
No. Points or no points. I can't afford the USD $70 equivalent any more than I
can afford points. I've gotta be more careful, period.<br />
</p>
<p>
(Oh, and, in addition to the fine, the Post Office (my employer) requires me
to write a little 「始末書」 -- <i>"shimatsu-sho"</i> =>
"take-care-of-it-note" -- a semi-formal hand-written note (in Japanese) that
briefly explains that I got the ticket, that I understand why, and that I'm
committed to not making the same mistake again. Unfortunately, the 始末書 will
have an effect on my bonus, as well. Part of the reason I'm writing this is to
help me figure out what to write in that note. Brief. Not detailed like this
post at all.) <br />
</p>
<p>
I got lucky a little later that day, and had to stop for the crosswalk signal
coming from the opposite direction, right in front of the intersection in
question. There was just enough time to pull out my cell phone, flick the
camera on, and get this without taking the picture while I was actually
moving:<br />
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAhOOiuGGwjY_ft0OZUcpsYPT2EyzhLPMZs6ngKPmg3Pw0z9575sJFls8j839boR6tfZF_hZ27Mg6i_bOgdeUP8itoheYLj4W061Szum7Oq8c9XT2V5rw6dU__19GKLg-zI5c5fooayc4c/s800/right_ok_lo.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAhOOiuGGwjY_ft0OZUcpsYPT2EyzhLPMZs6ngKPmg3Pw0z9575sJFls8j839boR6tfZF_hZ27Mg6i_bOgdeUP8itoheYLj4W061Szum7Oq8c9XT2V5rw6dU__19GKLg-zI5c5fooayc4c/w400-h300/right_ok_lo.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
Right turn okay, but watch out for pedestrians and bicycles.<br />
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
(Yeah, I know. Taking pictures while stopped at a light is not something to
get in the habit of doing, either.) <br />
</p>
<p>
If you're seeing it like I've been seeing it for the past six months, there
doesn't seem to be any hint of a reason for unusual controls on the
intersection. It's nice and wide, and even wider coming in from the direction
I had usually been coming in from.
</p>
<p>
Again, if I took more pictures, I could show that there is no sign controlling
turns when traveling in the direction I was traveling when the crosswalk
signal stopped me and I took this picture. Right turns in from this direction
are perfectly fine, as long as you properly yield to pedestrians and bicycle
riders. <br />
</p>
<p>Bicycle riders --<br /></p>
<p>
If you notice, even though I've blurred out the faces and other identifying
details, there are four young school-age guys riding bikes in this picture.
</p>
<p>
This intersection is on a piece of road between an academic/shopping/light
industry center and a major shopping center. Both are several hundred meters
away, but the foot and bicycle traffic are both pretty heavy here. I've even
had the presence of mind to think there should be more controls on the
intersection because of the foot and bicycle traffic.
</p>
<p>
But I guess I was thinking of traffic lights, not no-turn-left signs.<br />
</p>
<p>Upshot? Moral? Lesson?<br /></p>
<p>
A year and a half ago, when I started this job, I hadn't driven regularly for
some ten years or so. Just making sure I didn't do anything overtly dangerous
while I was getting the mail out was pushing my limits. Luckily, I didn't have
too many of these more obscure kinds of traffic control situations to deal
with back then.
</p>
<p>
I've had a lot of help from co-workers and management on this job (and God),
or I wouldn't have made it through the first year without getting a lot of
tickets like this. <br />
</p>
<p>
Now I've got to look harder for those blue signs while I'm driving, and be
more careful to read and understand them. And watch and learn more about the
less-obvious road conditions.
</p>
<p>
Either that or get my
<a href="https://econ101-novel.blogspot.com/2021/04/econ101-title-page-table-of-contents.html" target="_blank">block-buster (cough) novel</a>
finished and make scads of money (cough) on
<a href="https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">my writing</a>
so I don't have to work this job to pay rent and put food on the table.
</p>
<p>Sigh. <br /></p>
<p>
Better focus on understanding those road signs more better. Uhm, more
carefully. Better.
</p>
<p>(English is my native tongue. Really. Or maybe Texan.)</p>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-68155273238254574532021-07-06T21:46:00.001+09:002021-07-06T22:20:50.835+09:00Was Snape a Bully?<p> <span>Jesus loves the bullies, too. He wants us all to be happy, including the bullies.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>(I'm sure I've just stepped on some toes there, and will now get a lot of pushback, especially from people who think bullies need no defense.)</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>But Snape is not really a bully.<br /><br />Bullies believe that power is the foundation of human relationships. Snape sometimes seemed to behave that way, but he kept breaking the rules of power.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>He does teach us a lot about bullying and that makes his character especially poignant because our modern culture has developed a very two-dimensional view of bullies (two -dimensional view of personality in general, but especially of bullies).</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Teasing and bullying are the bully's way of reaching out to others, of inviting them to play. They have been raised to believe that any other sort of human interaction is weak, to the point that they don't dare interact in any other way. So it's hard for them to learn any healthier way. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Then we, the rest of society, paint them as bullies, ostracize them, and refuse to give them any opportunity to learn any other way. We have to protect ourselves, we say. That makes it doubly hard for them to learn any healthier way.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>James was not a bully, but he didn't know how to deal with Snape. So he dropped back to power-based forms -- which is the essential form of relationship that bullies know. That doesn't make James a bully any more than Snape.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Snape was just a lonely kid who wanted friends but was not allowed them. Society ostracized him and tried to force him to act the bully. Tom Riddle definitely encouraged him to become a bully. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Snape had difficulty relating to people in other ways than the forms of power, but he did try to give the children of Slytherin the things he had not had. He used pecking orders when it was necessary -- because the kids that got selected into Slytherin tended to know nothing else themselves -- but he also tried to give them other ways to interact.<br /><br /></span>Much is made of how he treated Harry. I'm going from what I've known of bullies who have tried to teach me how to be a bully "for my own good" here. I can tell you that Snape did not try to teach Harry how to be a bully. He (successfully) taught him how to defend himself from bullies, and how to choose a different way.</p><p>(I guess I have to state the obvious somewhere in here: bullies can never be happy as long as they believe that power is the only way to relate with people -- as long as they insist on being bullies. God does not want bullies to remain bullies.)<br /><span></span><br /><span>Ostracism is itself a form of bullying. Think about that while you think about how you hate Snape.</span><br /><span></span></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-24355515934959331932021-06-20T22:55:00.085+09:002021-06-22T23:54:19.568+09:00So How Did You Celebrate Juneteenth?<p>By the time someone I follow on Twitter mentioned Juneteenth fourteen hours ago, it was already June 20th here in Japan. </p><p>I hadn't gotten the news about the day becoming an official national holiday by act of Congress and signature of President Joe Biden, so, if I had remembered it, I would still be operating under the impression that it was an unofficial holiday.<br /></p><p>Oh, well. </p><p>The purpose of celebrating a holiday is not something sacred about the exact date, it's to help us recall the ideas, events, concept, goals, etc., that the holiday memorializes -- that the holiday is intended to bring out attention back to. So, the holiday has served its purpose for me this year, even if belatedly.</p><p>Here is the document memorialized: <br /></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/juneteenth-original-document" target="_blank">Juneteenth --<br />Jubilee Day<br />Emancipation Day</a></p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: right;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: right;">Head Quarters District of Texas <br />Galveston Texas June 19th 1865.<br /></p><p><br />General Orders<br /> No. 3.<br /><br /> The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.<br /><br /> The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.<br /><br /> By order of Major General Granger<br /><br /> F.W. Emery<br /><br /> Major A.A. Genl. <br /></p></blockquote><p></p><p> </p><p>This is a memorial of the day that emancipation was officially announced in Texas.</p><p>A war had been fought. Texas had joined on the side of states retaining the right to choose for themselves about the form of indentured servitude known as chattel slavery. Slave owners who didn't understand how to transition to a new world where indentured servitude would be by terminable contract moved to Texas in large numbers, looking for refuge from the new world order.</p><p>This order should have eliminated slavery, and it gave hope to a lot of former slaves. It is that hope which is celebrated and remembered. </p><p>And it's a hope we still all need, since indentured servitude by unconscionable contract is still with us.</p><p>If we want to break down the walls between the classes, and those in every class, including the so-called upper classes of so-called privilege that is mostly illusion, we should all want the walls broken down. If we want those walls broken down, we should all celebrate Juneteenth, to the extent that those whose natural right it is to celebrate it will allow us.<br /></p><p><br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-44523330028348585122021-06-11T21:58:00.003+09:002021-06-11T22:02:29.065+09:00Evaluating My ISP -- YMobile<p>About two years ago, I decided I'd had enough of NTT Docomo's arrogance and excessively competitive attitude. And Rakuten had bought out our old wired ISP (Sannet) and was arbitrarily changing things like email addresses and raising the connection rates.<br /></p><p>Seriously, we are letting important infrastructure become dependent on companies who can't tell the difference between healthy competition and cutthroat competition. We've been letting the cutthroats win in the market for something like thirty or forty years. Do we have a right to complain that the service has just been going downhill?</p><p>Whether we have the "right to complain" or not, how else will the cutthroats understand that we don't want cutthroat competition? <br /></p><p>We want competition that gives us options to fit our own needs. That's a good kind of competition. It is right to complain.</p><p>Back to YMobile. YMobile was claiming that they could give us cheaper internet and phone if we brought it all under their umbrella. So I listened to the sales spiel and did it. Basic phone, house internet connection, and all our cell phones and my tablet.</p><p>YMobile had been pretty good about my tablet, so I thought I could trust them.<br /></p><p>And that was a small mistake. </p><p>It didn't end up any cheaper. Might have ended up about a thousand yen more expensive. I haven't really compared YMobile's rates to the other options.</p><p>It also left us dependent on YMobile if something should go wrong.</p><p>Like now.</p><p>Not going to get into specifics, and you can say I should know better, but the real world .... There is one phone being paid out of my account that is not my phone. And the owner of that phone would not log in to check her bill each month, so she could warn me. She warned my once a couple of months back, when she realized that she had accidentally spent about an hour and a half talking on the phone line instead of the Line voice chat line. </p><p>I covered that charge with extra money in the account the next month.</p><p>But then this last month's bill comes in, and again it is about JPY 2500 above the base line. And I didn't have any warning, so automatic withdrawal on one of the bills from YMobile bounced.</p><p>So I tried to contact them to find out what was going on.</p><p>Nope. The local YMobile shops can't tell me. I have to call.</p><p>But, nope. Calling just tells me to get on the web and ask them to call me at a specific time.</p><p>Well, the specific time has to be chosen from the range of time when I am at work -- 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. And if you try to use the web form outside that time to reserve a time, it automatically picks a time in that range for you.</p><p>So I'm either driving or putting mail in slots for most of that range. If I'm lucky and there's no overtime, I knock off by 6:00 PM.<br /></p><p>So I ended up with a reservation to receive a call between 11:00 AM and noon.</p><p>So an operator calls me, and she refuses to understand that I cannot talk, that I really shouldn't even be taking the time for asking for a slot after 6:00 PM. After a couple of minutes of trying to get her to give me a slot after six and her telling me she'd need to interrupt my driving later that morning to do so, I had to hang up. </p><p>Mail waits better than drivers on the road, but only a little when you have customers that have requested delivery before noon.</p><p>No way to ask why the bill is too big without (I am told) talking to a live operator on the phone. </p><p>Now I get a dunning notice. If I don't pay it by the third week after the original date automatic withdrawal date, they'll take the nuclear option -- shut down my house line and send out a bad credit report.</p><p>No grace period. (Docomo has a grace period.) Not clear if they'll check whether there's enough balance for a second try at the automatic withdrawal. (Docomo clearly states the date they'll try again on.) </p><p>No time to ask questions, no time to discuss anything. </p><p>And, this is explicit in the dunning notice:</p><blockquote><p>「過払い金が発生した場合は、翌月以降の請求分にて相殺いたします。」 <br />"If an over-payment occurs, we'll balance it out on later bills." <br /></p></blockquote><p>They'll balance it out. On later bills. At their convenience. If they notice.<br /></p><p>Okay, so I have to pay without finding out why. And then waste time on my days off to hound them until they tell me why. Or tell they won't tell me why, is my guess.</p><p>I could pay them another JPY 220 a month per phone to get an (internet-only, disappears after six months) detail listing of calls, but that would definitely make it more expensive than keeping my land phone with NTT, letting my wired internet get taken over by Rakuten, and supporting NTT Docomo with our cellphone payments. And that only works if I can get the person who owns the phone to check.</p><p>I can understand not letting me check her detailed phone record, but, although they are happy to let me set her up to auto-withdraw from my bank account, they refuse to tell me how much in advance. She has to tell me, or I just blindly put extra money in that account.</p><p>Just imagine what would happen if my mother-in-law or father-in-law were to try to deal with this. <br /></p><p>I know, I know, I'm at fault here. Except, not. </p><p>Not if I have to blindly keep extra money in that account, just in case. <br /></p><p>Not if there's no way for me to find out what's going on. </p><p>If you're considering jumping to YMobile, think twice or three times about it.</p><p>(I'll wait to tweet this and post it in my FB feed until after I waste half my next day off trying one more time to find out what's going on. I suppose I'm going to add that detailed report of calls to all the accounts, even though it will cost more.)<br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-47163102460331117822021-02-28T19:33:00.006+09:002021-03-01T14:33:06.888+09:00Sex Is Not For FunThere is this social undercurrent that you may get from "authorities" that sex
is <b>unclean</b>, or <b>forbidden</b>, or <b>dangerous</b>! <b> </b><p><b>Exciting</b>!<br /></p>
<p>Then there is this social undercurrent that sex is <i><b>fun</b>!</i></p>
<p>Wait.</p>
<p>That's no longer an undercurrent.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sex sells. </span>
</h4>
<p>
It's a cheap way to shore up your sagging sales performance rating or sagging
locker-room reputation, or, well, any sagging image problem.</p><p>So everybody and their dog is selling it.</p>
<p>Except--<br /></p>
<p>
It's not cheap.</p><p>And it doesn't really shore up anything. <br /></p>
<p>
Unclean, forbidden, dangerous, exciting, fun, it's all the same -- lies by partial
truth.
</p>
<p>Sex <b>is</b> fun! For a moment.</p>
<p>
It releases those endorphins in the brain, and those endorphins are what
recreational drugs and rock-n-roll and romance novels and fast cars and so
forth are all about.
</p>
<p>
But when used as a drug, it's just like the rest of the list. When you are
done, it lets you down.
</p>
<p>
Now, it doesn't let you down if you are doing it the right way for the right reasons. Using
it as a safe drug is not a right reason, and it isn't safe, no matter what the
people who like the easy sell tell you.
</p>
<p>
What's the right reason to have sex with someone? Well, it's a lot easier to
talk about a bunch of the wrong reasons, and I'm in rant mode, so I'll talk
about those first.
</p>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Sex is dangerous! </h4><p>But they also tell you we have conquered syphilis, scabies, and
herpes. And then they'll say condoms! And try to tell you herpes and scabies really aren't that bad anyway,
and "we" are going to conquer HIV/AIDS real soon now, ...
</p>
<p>
Even if condoms never developed pin-prick holes and such, and all the talk about conquering all the sexually transmitted
diseases were for real, there is still the problem of the heat of the moment.
</p>
<p>In the middle of the endorphin rush, you tend to do stupid things -- like taking the condom off, or convincing yourself the pill also protects against diseases, or ...<br /></p>
<p>
So sex really is dangerous, and not just the exciting kind of dangerous. </p><p>That's why you should keep it within marriage. Then it's
not so dangerous. (It's still dangerous enough to be an adventure, though.)
</p>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">Sex is forbidden!</h4>
<p>
Well, yeah. Random sex really is forbidden if you understand the
dangers. And doing things just because they are forbidden has always been a
bit brain-dead, anyway.
</p>
<p>
Now, there is a class of philosophy that forbids sex except for making
children, and even (in certain perversions) wants to forbid it then. Make your babies in test-tube, and use man-made
drugs to get the endorphin rush, etc.
</p>
<p>It ain't going to work. Not anywhere in the near future, and, if experimental results don't change, we really can't expect that it will ever work well enough to replace the natural way of making babies.<br /></p><p>Sure, we can use the test-tube to help sometimes, and
it's important to understand endorphins, but the whole idea of the endorphin
rush is to help us overcome all the psycho-emotional mechanicalities that we tend to pile on
ourselves, whether we call them "the law of Moses" or "rational behavior" or
"tradition!" or whatever. </p><p>Well, not the whole idea, but a major part of it. </p><p>Whether you appeal to mother nature or God for your purpose, making babies is one of the purposes of sex. <br /></p>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">Sex is unclean.</h4>
<p>
Whether it's solitary masturbation or sex between properly married partners or sex and masturbation in a group orgy, it's unclean.
</p>
<p>
This isn't just about micro-organisms and physical dirt. When you have sex, you share
some intangibles, too, emotional things and intellectual things and spiritual
things and social things and economic things. You share them in ways that aren't clean, and I don't mean ritually clean. But no one seems to want to talk
about that, because <b>sex sells!</b>
</p>
<p>
Now it can be (relatively) clean, even sacred, (if still a bit stinky -- <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/funk" target="_blank">funky</a> -- between
partners properly and legally committed to each other and consenting to it.
</p>
<p>
But it's still not perfectly safe and clean within marriage. That is, even
between properly married, consenting spouses, sex can be done in ways that are unnecessarily harmful to the health of one or both partners. </p><p>And it leaves stuff behind that,
if not taken care of, just get messier. Even in the best of cases, it's hard to
have sex without leaving body fluids on the sheets, underwear, and various
other places. If you fail to clean things up, they get sticky and smelly and moldy, and people can get sick from the funk. And if you let things go too long, it can cause real, serious disease. And, hey, you know this is not hygienic.</p><p>And the shared excitement leaves both partners with expectations that need to be fulfilled. Not taking care of those expectations tends to be emotionally non-hygienic. <br /></p>
<p>
Babies? Yeah, condoms do slip, or develop crease cracks and holes. Pregnancy is always a possibility between partners of the opposite gender. </p><p>Babies are messy, too, but we don't complain about them because it's
obvious they have to be messy to grow up. And we were babies once, no matter
how hard we pretend we were never that uncool.
</p>
<p>
(Well, there have been, and still are, some who say children should be seen
and not heard. And mean that they don't want to be bothered. This is another
blind sort of philosophy.)
</p>
<p>
But the fact that babies are wonderful in spite of being messy does not mean
that we should ignore the possibility of making babies when we do the sex
thing. Maybe it's not a danger like getting sick, but bringing a baby into
this world without even the promise of support is something we should avoid
when possible. And if the burden naturally falls on the mother, it should be
obvious that the father should be willing to commit to shouldering his part of the burden.
And there we are back to marriage.
</p>
<p>
Oh. Pregnancy definitely can have adverse effects on health, in spite of all
the wonderful medical stuff we have in our "modern" world. And all the
wonderful modern contraceptives don't always prevent it happening. </p><p>Pregnancy is also a danger of sex. <br /></p>
<p>
Because of those endorphins, many people want to pretend that sex should be
free and easy, with or without marriage.</p><p>But we really don't need to pretend such things. <br /></p>
<p>You can get endorphin rush in lots of ways besides sex. Interacting
with people gives us lots of opportunities to be nice to others, and being
nice to them makes them feel good (even though they may pretend they don't
like to feel good), and it also makes us feel good.
</p>
<p>
Mutual appreciation is not mutual masturbation no matter how many cynics say
it is. Masturbation requires getting one's hands on the sex organ, whether
literally or metaphorically. Appreciation does not. </p><p>There are plenty of ways to make each other
feel good without getting into sex.
</p>
<p>
Anyway, the mutual agreement of support and exclusion made in marriage may not
be perfectly iron-clad, but it's a whole lot better than the assumption that
your partner-of-the-moment has probably come from some other messy tryst
without bothering to clean up and is probably going to leave you without
bothering to help you clean up, too.</p><p>There may be some need to talk about doing marriage the wrong way, since marriage is sometimes used as a tool of oppression.</p><p>The act of having sex itself implies commitment. You trust the other person not to bring a disease with him or her. And if there is a pregnancy, you trust the other person not to leave the one person with all the responsibility of the pregnancy. </p><p>That's one of the reasons many states in the USA used to have laws such that "living together as a married couple" would bring about a legal condition called common-law marriage.<br /></p>
<p>Random sex is extremely messy. And it's so unnecessary.</p>
<p>So how can sex be a good thing?</p>
<p>
Clearly, it's primarily a good thing between people who are truly committed to each
other, at times when both are agreed about doing it.
</p>
<p>
That's when it can be fun and not let you down. That's when it can be an
adventure without usually killing you. </p><p>Yeah, childbirth is still dangerous,
but spouses are supposed to help each other, okay? </p><p>Marriage isn't iron-clad safe. Life isn't iron-clad safe, either. But both can be a bit better than the alternatives.</p><p>(On reflection the morning after I posted this, I'm still being being too oblique about the most current topic on sex. So,)</p><p>What of LGBQT?</p><p>LGT sex inherently does not lead to childbirth. Female humans cannot spontaneously conceive. Whether by the design of evolution or of God, the human female body has safety mechanisms to prevent that, with at least two results I can think of. One, if getting pregnant as soon as a woman has recovered from the previous childbirth wears a woman's health out, spontaneously conception is going to wear all women out all the faster. Another, human DNA is so complex it needs the fresh recombination from a disparate source on conception, for the offspring's health.<br /></p><p>The current state of the art relative to transexuality can only alter bodies relative to the overt sex act, and it's apparently just as well that that is all it can do. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">We cannot actually invert sex relative to conception with our present or near-future technology. </h4><p>So LGT sex is great for preventing unwanted pregnancies, right?</p><p>But it's still dangerous. And to the extent that it is promiscuous, it spreads disease. </p><p>I'm pretty sure, from what I understand of history, that society should keep its nose out of homosexual and transsexual relationships that are not promiscuous.<br /></p><p>Bisexuality is different. You cannot be practicing bisexual and have just one partner. </p><p>I'm not sure what society should do about closed bisexual relationships, but open bisexuality tends overwhelmingly to be non-restrictive. That means promiscuous. That means it spreads disease. </p><p>(Sometimes I think the whole point of bisexuality seems to be that some people don't know how to love without having sex.) <br /></p><p>I don't know how heavily society should suppress that, but I know society should not promote it.</p><p>Queer sex? If it isn't promiscuous, it still may have a problem with being too abusive -- too quick to do things that are dangerous to the health. Again, I'm not sure how much society should be involved in private decisions when promiscuity is not involved, but there are cases of queer sex where the abusive element is too much. Partner abuse becomes a social problem whether the relationship is normal or queer.</p><p>When the rainbow banner encourages us to care for and love each other in non-sexual ways, it is raised in a good cause. But when it is raised as an excuse for sexual promiscuity, it is raised in a bad cause.</p><p>(Maybe that clarifies what I'm trying to say.)<br /></p><p>Marriage is when being
forbidden really means, yes, you can -- with this one person with whom you
have made the mutual (and sexually exclusive) commitments of marriage. That's when it is sacred, and
not unclean. </p><p>Sex is not just for fun. <br /></p>
<p>But just because sex is not for fun doesn't mean it can't be fun -- with your
properly married spouse. </p><p><i>(I posted the original version of this rant back in May of 2106 in
a blog behind a mature-content wall. Current conditions in the world
make that wall irrelevant for this post, so I'm posting it here now,
edited, to make it a little less oblique.</i><i> The original, if you want to read it for some reason, can be found <a href="https://joel-rees-about-sex.blogspot.com/2016/05/sex-is-not-for-fun.html" target="_blank">here</a>, still behind that wall.)</i> <br /></p>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-65593837474486151802021-01-31T13:16:00.004+09:002021-01-31T13:35:50.711+09:00Some thoughts on Hanlon's Razor -- Stupidity Is Less Catching than Shared<p>Robert J. Hanlon had a razor of logic. </p><p>It was a joke. </p><p>At least, he is said to have submitted it to a joke book. <br /><br />(Had to move from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor" target="_blank">Wikipedia page</a> to his <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_J._Hanlon" target="_blank">Wikiquote page</a> to find out what joke book. He is (apparently?) quoted in one of Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law books. Not enough information. Bit of irony in that.)</p><p>Jokes usually have a root in reality. That's what makes them funny -- they offer an unusual and amusing viewpoint of some painful point we usually take for granted.</p><p>Anger is something we take for granted. Assignment of blame is something we take for granted. Defense and revenge are also things we take way too much for granted.</p><p>The joke goes like this:</p><blockquote><p>Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.</p></blockquote><p>I've also heard it said as <i>incompetence</i> rather than <i>stupidity</i>. <br /></p><p>Either way, stupidity and incompetence are not particularly more friendly charges than malice. Different, but not a whole lot better to be saying about others, especially without solid proof.</p><p>But I note that Hanlon is not quoted as saying whose stupidity. The quote does allow being read as attributing things we don't like to mutual stupidity. <br /></p><p>It's never good to make up rules to call yourself stupid. If you can think well enough to call yourself stupid, you are trying, even if others think you are not. And trying is the first thing that moves you beyond stupidity.</p><p>So I offer my own razor:</p><blockquote><p>Better to assume both you and the other guy are less than perfect than to assume he or she is out to get you.</p></blockquote><p>And I'll offer a twin to that:</p><blockquote><p>If you demand perfection of the other guy, don't be surprised when he or she demands it of you.<br /></p></blockquote><p>God is an apparent exception, but our own ideas of perfection are enough removed from real perfection that it is going to be more useful to forgive the Gods for being stupid rather than decide that they are out to get you. (Or, if you don't believe you believe in God, forgive the universe for being stupid rather than assume it is has a grudge against you.)<br /></p><p>While I'm at it, I'll offer a close cousin that is very appropriate to our current political climate:</p><p></p><blockquote><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql gk29lw5a a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id" dir="auto">If
the other side is getting excited, they probably think they have a
reason. If they think they have a reason, we really should consider the
possibility that they do, and that the reason lies, in part, in us.</span></blockquote> <p></p><p>Anyway, in spite of the fact that real abuse and offenses occur, we should be looking for reasons to forgive instead of reasons for war -- again, noting that forgiveness and permission are separate things. </p><p>You can forgive an abuser and still get yourself away from him or her. </p><p>In extreme cases, you can still seek an injunction or court order stopping somebody from doing something that harms you, even while you forgive the person for being unable (for malice, stupidity, or whatever reason) to refrain from harming you if he or she gets too close to you.</p><p>We're all imperfect. Stupidity is less a disease that is catching than it is a state of being that we all share in.<br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-5069962173040500162021-01-15T20:03:00.004+09:002021-01-15T20:35:36.467+09:00Fermentation Products for Dinner<div>Dinner tonight:<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5yykgi_Zs1oOa6ueK_4EpJ4exTap6Bz5k7cwGGW-fMOZlXDQxadopqppG7nr33qywnXSA0R_jU_bOsg-LbiaM_CY2__HpozxtXIZMFJ8I7dYgvhULkDgsgJuI4NUjDlIDskIIGVXYERb/s1600/1610708600161212-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5yykgi_Zs1oOa6ueK_4EpJ4exTap6Bz5k7cwGGW-fMOZlXDQxadopqppG7nr33qywnXSA0R_jU_bOsg-LbiaM_CY2__HpozxtXIZMFJ8I7dYgvhULkDgsgJuI4NUjDlIDskIIGVXYERb/s1600/1610708600161212-0.png" width="400" />
</a>
</div><div style="text-align: center;">
Nattō, kim Chee, and my wife's pan bread,
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">with rice and her vegetables. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Had some fried salmon as well, but it's already in my stomach. No pics.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Will probably polish it off with yogghurt.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other news, Trump is still a klutz, Pelosi's still a jerk, delivering mail is hard work. I'll soon start migrating my world from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Blogspot, etc. Life goes on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking into <a href="https://inrupt.com/" target="_blank">Solid</a>. Tim Berners-Lee may be on to something. The Internet was supposed to be a web of peers from the beginning, anyway.<br /></div>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-53645818301827867332020-12-13T17:27:00.003+09:002020-12-13T17:28:37.107+09:00Hikikomori 引き籠り -- Acute Social Withdrawal Syndrome 痛烈社交引き籠り症候群<p>In a bit of situational irony, cosmic irony, or, perhaps, mere coincidence, my wife's aunt has asked me to translate some informational material for a service group she is involved with. </p><p>As far as I know, they don't yet have a web site, so I can't link it here yet. But it's a group of volunteers in <a href="http://www.city.kasai.hyogo.jp/"><i>Kasai City</i></a> (加西市), formed to support parents and guardians of individuals with disabilities particularly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori"><i>hikikomori</i></a> (<a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%95%E3%81%8D%E3%81%93%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A">引き籠り</a>) class disabilities.<br /></p><p>I could well be said to be one who has suffered from this "malady". </p><p>I took a six year break from college, trying to complete two assignments in a way that would have essentially produced a more advanced free operating system than Unix with a systems programming language much more advanced than C. (I started this <i>easy</i> little project some five or six years before <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds">Linus</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux">started his thing</a> with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel">Linux kernel</a> using the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Project">GNU project</a>'s free C compiler <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Compiler_Collection">toolchain, gcc</a>.)</p><p>Friends and relatives thought I wasn't working. It's true I wasn't making money. </p><p>Friends and relatives thought I was holed up in my grandfathers' attic. I got out and about quite a bit. I just didn't get out to go punch a timeclock. And I did often spend sixteen hour stretches up on the second floor, trying to work through the reasons the system and language I was trying to develop kept hitting resource requirement walls and internal contradictions. </p><p>Well, and I actually produced some useful stuff while I was up there, too, just never had a way to get it out into the real world where people could use it.</p><p>That wasn't the first time, and it wasn't the last.</p><p>Recently, I spent a couple of years trying to write a novel while I was trying to find someone who would hire me, then recovering from an accident while trying to write a novel while trying to find someone who would hire me.<br /></p><p>Even now, I'm in a sense withdrawn from society, using my muscles to do things I've never done before to make rent instead of using what skills I have to make a real living. While trying to write a novel instead of falling asleep when I get home.</p>Why? Because the "external society" that I have access to keeps telling me they really, really don't want me to do the things I can do, and demanding that I do things I can't.<p>And that, in a nutshell, is why people withdraw from society. <br /></p><p>(Yeah, life does have a way of pushing and stretching us in ways we
don't want. I know that But that is no excuse for us to add to each
other's problems. There is a difference between pushing and
stretching, and squishing and breaking. And when we undertake to judge others' efforts, we tend to squeeze people until they break. And then they pull back, if they can. Or die.)<br /></p><p>I need to finish that translation. Then maybe I'll translate this post into my hackish Japanese. Or maybe I'll get back to my novels. Or just keep falling asleep.<br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-71135302405963201502020-11-23T22:05:00.005+09:002020-11-23T23:55:35.767+09:00Gratitude for Family 家族への感謝<p>My wife is not the ideal woman I hoped to marry when I was single. We disagree on such a deep level that even the things we agree on often cause friction.<br />妻のことなんですが、独身の俺が結婚したいと思った理想的な女ではありません。基礎の基礎の処の考えが違って、一致しているところさえも言い合いになってしまうほどです。 <br /></p><p>My children are not the ideal children I thought I wanted to raise. They don't even try to understand what is important to their dad and why.<br />俺の子供たちも、子育てに関わるつもりだった理想的な子どもたちではありません。その父親である俺の優先にするものとその訳も理解しようともしません。</p><p>But they are fundamentally good people. <br />にもかかわらず、根本的に善良ある人です。<br /></p><p>And the fact that they do not match my ideals is not a bad thing. It keeps me on my toes.<br /> 俺の理想に叶わない事実は悪いことでもありません。抜け目はできないことになります。<br /></p><p>If I had married the ideal woman I wanted to marry, I'd have conquered the world. But conquering the world probably wouldn't have been good for me. Or her. Or the world.<br />たとえ、結婚したかった理想的な女性と結婚したとしては、世界を征服しただろう。そして、俺が世界を征服したとすると、その行方は俺にも、その相手にも、世界にも良い結果を持つことではなかったでしょう。</p><p>My family, non-ideal (according to my ideals) as they are, give me many opportunities to conquer my own lesser tendencies and traits. That seems to be more important than conquering the world. At least, I think God tells me so.<br />(俺の理想にしては)非理想的な我が家は、俺自身のあまりマシではない傾向や特徴などを克服する機会を多く与えてくれます。世界を征服するよりは自分を克服するほうが必要でしょう。少なくとも、神様にそう言われています。</p><p>So, even though I complain too often, I #give_thanks for them.<br />したがって、文句は言うのが多すぎだろうけど、#感謝する のです。</p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-60989550344356798442020-10-18T09:20:00.004+09:002020-10-18T09:48:56.512+09:00Frozen banana makes a good ice cube for hot cereal.<p>Frozen banana makes a good ice cube for hot cereal.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVn5_43whu79JuOUsRfi0cfpRbcyfR14PyzA-sC0x2ii33AW0hk4SnCuvTTWJoY8gQr_5Y5XAcs2BWchd_ULXZdU-1NveDAam4X7Mkka22qv-Wrj3IftzHEdVCJunRDGiaQLrjYYwFznt/s800/hot_cereal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVn5_43whu79JuOUsRfi0cfpRbcyfR14PyzA-sC0x2ii33AW0hk4SnCuvTTWJoY8gQr_5Y5XAcs2BWchd_ULXZdU-1NveDAam4X7Mkka22qv-Wrj3IftzHEdVCJunRDGiaQLrjYYwFznt/w400-h300/hot_cereal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Rolled oats with soy flour mixed in water, microwaved. </p><p>The milk I added after was not enough to cool it so I could eat it without burning my tongue.</p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-2187438966032729072020-09-13T00:08:00.037+09:002020-09-13T20:16:48.856+09:00Churn for Churn's Sake<p>Google's Blogger (Blogspot) editor has suddenly become 'new'.</p><p>(Okay, <a href="https://blogger.googleblog.com/" target="_blank">not really 'suddenly'</a>. And 'Help' is no help, whether the <a href="https://support.google.com/blogger/community/?hl=en&gpf=%23!forum%2Fblogger" target="_blank">'user community'</a> or the <a href="https://support.google.com/blogger/?p=help_home&hl=ja&authuser#topic=3339243" target="_blank">official help line</a>.) <br /></p><p>So I'm trying out the 'new'. But all the worst old bugs are still there, and they've added some new bad bugs, as well. </p><p>One thing that drives me nuts is that I can't discard an edit. Even
if the bugs have destroyed my work, the destructive results are automagically saved
over what I had before. This is a bug in the design -- a design flaw. A failed design.</p><p>I haven't yet figured out how to leave off editing without publishing, except for hitting the browser's back button or just closing the browser window. To me, that feels too much like shutting the computer down by pulling the power cord.<br /></p><p>The Enter key now means paragraph break instead of line break. To get a line break, you have to use shift-Enter. That's arbitrarily changing the meaning of the Enter key -- and why? Turn 40 years of tradition upside down, just because some college intern has been indoctrinated in the ideals and idolatries of that perversion of markup languages, XML? (Once upon a time, I thought XML was a good thing.)<br /></p><p>Arbitrary changes are another of those practices direct from the worst practices handbook. <br /></p><p>Too many things have changed without explanation, too much expects the user to understand the new metaphor (like the hamburger mark meaning something specific), too much expects the connection to be constant, undelayed, and following the latest changes to the Internet Specifications. (If your Internet connection coughs, be patient. It'll either bomb out on you or recover, eventually.)</p><p>Importing images into a blog that was started with the legacy editor will do stupid things. The image won't drop where the cursor is, it will drop at the next paragraph break, which is probably at the end of the document. Here's how I fixed that with the chapter of the <a href="https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2020/01/33209-2nd-Microcomputer-Revolution-Homecoming-TOC.html" target="_blank">novel that I'm currently working on</a>:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The pencil at the top left -- click the tiny triangle to its right and select HTML view.</li><li>Click in the edit window, then right click and select all.</li><li>Copy the HTML and paste it into an open, empty Gedit window. Any plain text editor that can match and replace on end-of-line/newline will do.</li><li>Type a paragraph start <blockquote><p></blockquote> at the beginning of the document and a paragraph end <blockquote></p></blockquote> at the end. <br /></li><li>Replace all line break pairs with paragraph breaks split by newline. In Gedit, that's <ol><li>ctrl-H,</li><li>check the "enable regular expressions" button,</li><li> and replace <blockquote><br /><br /></blockquote> with <blockquote></p>\n<p></blockquote></li></ol></li><li>Check that the results are sane before selecting all and copying to a new blogger document. Keep the old document in case it doesn't work well.</li><li>Now you can insert an image at any paragraph break.<br /></li></ol><p>The new editor was was supposed to have table editing, but that appears to have disappeared. As it usually does. HTML tables are too ambiguous for a general editor. Can't college students be given a preview on the implications of NP-completeness in their freshman year?<br /></p><p>And it looks like Google has decided pop-up windows are no longer a vulnerable feature in web browsers or something, because the 'new' way to do previews, and, apparently, interact with the user about what to do with an open document, has Firefox asking me if I want to change pop-up settings. I have to give blogspot/blogger permission to impersonate Firefox to interact with the editor.</p><p>I'm not going to do that. That's yet another from the worst practices handbook.</p><p>Reporting bugs? How do you take a screen shot of yourself hitting the Enter key? How do you get the pop-up blocker in the screen-shot when the screen-shot is limited to the active window? And how do you get feedback, to be sure that anyone has even looked at your bug report, much less understood it?</p><p>And let's not forget that intermittent Internet access just makes all the bugs more prominent.<br /></p><p>And Blogger/Blogspot/Google is now going to force everyone using Blogspot to use the new editor. You can still revert to the 'legacy' editor, but it is no longer functional. And the next time you log on, it has you back in the 'new' editor. And you get the message saying "You will be moved. Resistance is futile."<br /></p>Why does new have to mean more bugs?<p>Why is new necessary if it doesn't fix anything?</p><p>You may wonder why I use Blogspot if I have so many complaints about it. </p><p>It was convenient. That's the only reason. </p><p> It was convenient. No longer. Apparently, I will now be migrating my blogs away from Blogspot. I've migrated before, I will do so again. </p><p>And I suppose that means my gmail account will be terminated within a few years.<br /></p><p>Why does a company as rich as Google feel it necessary to force us to accept churn for churn's sake? <br /></p>零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-38724053914252064822020-09-06T18:12:00.000+09:002020-09-06T19:25:26.333+09:00F*** Is a Euphemism for FoulWhen I was in my twenties, and realized that swearing in the privacy of my own car at the other drivers and their bad driving habits was getting me into bad habits of my own, God taught me how to divert the Tourette's reaction:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Say what you mean!</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You don't really mean you want that driver who cut in front of you to be condemned to hell. You mean you wish he'd drive better. So that's what you should say:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Drive better! </blockquote>
You don't really mean you want to rape the car (or the driver) that turned left in front of you and would have caused a really bad accident if your reactions had been slower. Even if he or she won't hear you, instead of "F*** you!" say,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Quit that!<br />
Slow down!<br />
Drive safe!</blockquote>
"And you really, really, really don't mean you want the stop light that turned red when you thought you wanted to go through it to melt down into excrement. This one is a little harder. Instead of "S***!", Say,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Getting there a couple of minutes later is better than having someone call from the hospital to tell them I won't be making it into work any more. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
And the conversation continued, with a little discussion of some priorities I had misplaced that were causing me stress.<br />
<br />
(If you're curious, the lyrics from The Fixx's hit song probably helped me focus on saying what one means -- one thing does lead to another. But I had been aware of the idea well before then, as from Matthew 5: 37 -- "Yea (for) yea, nay (for) nay".) <br />
<br />
But the lesson of saying what I mean has helped me to divert myself from Tourette's syndrome-like behavior on a number of occasions, and has actually helped me learn to communicate better. (I'm still pretty bad at communicating.)<br />
<br />
(BTW, you do know that "Oh, my God!" is actually the beginning of a prayer -- usually for help, right? "Oh, my God, please help me not to be so jealous of my neighbor!" or some such.)<br />
<br />
Recently, stress has been building up again, and I find myself referring to Bill Cosby's euphemistic substitutions<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Fow! Fi-eau! Fow-fau!</blockquote>
(I forget from which routine.)<br />
<br />
And I say things like<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Foul!</li>
<li>That's a foul! (red card)</li>
<li>(Things are all) fouled up!</li>
<li>You (committer of) foul (deeds)!
</li>
</ul>
<br />
although those are all a bit more judgemental words than I should be using, especially the last one.<br />
<br />
Well, maybe<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I call foul! </blockquote>
<br />
is not so overly judgemental. <br />
<br />
The thing is, when we say what we mean, we often find that we care more about other people and what happens to them than we think we want to admit. What we really mean is<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Play fair!</li>
<li>Let's do that again, right this time.</li>
<li>What a mess! Let's try to clean it up.</li>
<li>Is doing that going to make you happy?</li>
</ul>
<br />
And I recall today something that occurred to me many years ago -- that "fuck", "shit", "hell", "damn", etc. are actually the euphemisms. We use them when for some reason we are too tired, too embarrassed, too lazy (or too something!) to say what we really mean, or (especially) what we really should mean.<br />
<br />
(There is some non-literary irony in this. Erstwhile expletives are developing new, softer semantics. For instance, in many cases, in the local vernacular,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
F*** off!</blockquote>
<br />
no longer means<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Go somewhere I don't have to watch and play with your genitals by yourself!</blockquote>
so much as <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Go take a time-out. </blockquote>
Still, since the expletives are somewhat ambiguous, I think it's better to try to understand what we mean and say it.)零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-9498196038604743982020-08-23T00:32:00.002+09:002020-09-06T19:44:12.255+09:00A Not-quite Typical Day for the Mail<div>
3000 apartments.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
130 items of tracked mail, </div>
<div>
roughly 3000 items of untracked mail.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Direct visits to fifteen apartments for registered/priority mail or mail that wouldn't fit in the mailbox or the parcel lockers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ten hours – two hours longer than usual, about 25% more mail and apartments. (We each took extra to cover for co-workers who had family taken down by dehydration and the heat and such.)<br />
<br />
And it rained about 4:30 in the afternoon, but mostly cleared up while I was in the mail rooms of the apartment blocks I was working in at the time, which cooled things off -- which was nice. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My body hurts.<br />
<br />
[JMR202009061938:<br />
<br />
This one took me down a bit. Haven't quite recovered, even though I haven't yet had to take an unscheduled day off. haven't been able to match my speed for this one yet. Hopefully the heat will cut back after this typhoon passes. Would be nice if I could turn my writing into a career instead.<br />
<br />
] </div>
零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-63883413758544178222020-08-16T12:07:00.000+09:002020-08-17T08:32:20.716+09:00Fake Account Activity Phishing (Was it really you?)Lately, I've been seeing an increase in a certain type of social engineering -- aka, phishing for confirmation that my email address is live or phishing for passwords, etc.<br />
<br />
Generally the subject line is something designed to cause you to feel alarmed:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Subj: SUSPICIOUS TWITTER ACCOUNT ACTIVITY </blockquote>
<br />
It might be more low key, though:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Subj: Confirmation request for Zoom password reset.</blockquote>
<br />
Of course, it could be Twitter, or it could be Google, Facebook,
Pinterest, Line, Zoom, TikTok, Youtube, or any popular SNS service. Or a
chat service like Discord. Or it could be an on-line merchant or delivery service --
Amazon, Kindle, Apple, eBay, DHL, FedEx, UPS, your country's post office, whatever. It might even be your country's tax or immigration agency.<br />
<br />
It could be any service that operates
on-line.<br />
<br />
That is to say, it might <b><u>claim</u> to be</b> any of the above or more. People can claim anything.<br />
<br />
Here are some typical messages: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
XYZ tried to log in to your Google account. Is this okay?<br />
<ul>
<li>Ignore</li>
<li>Report </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
Or, similarly, <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A login to Facebook was attempted from phone number 123-4567-8900.<br />
<ul>
<li>This was me. it was safe.</li>
<li>This was not me. Report it. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
Or, in a slight variation, <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Confirm your password reset for Pinterest.<br />
<ul>
<li>Reset.</li>
<li>Do not reset.</li>
</ul>
If this was not you, you may safely ignore this message.</blockquote>
<br />
And this is kind of sneaky:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Click here to confirm unsubscribing from the PQR mailing list: <br />
<ul>
<li>UNSUBSCRIBE ME NOW!</li>
<li>Please keep my subscription valid.</li>
<li>Report SPAM</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
And it could be for other things than password reset, like an order confirmation: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Please confirm your order for frozen pizza dough.<br />
<ul>
<li>Yes, please send it.</li>
<li>No, I did not order it.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
Or a delivery time confirmation:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You have requested delivery from Ebay user MNO between<br />
10:00 and 12:00 this morning.<br />
<ul>
<li>I can receive it then.</li>
<li>I can't receive it then, please reschedule me.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
Of course, if you're not expecting these, you immediately suspect it's phishing. Don't you?<br />
<br />
Maybe not the suspicious account activity?<br />
<br />
Cardinal rule #1:<br />
<br />
Always check the message headers.<br />
<br />
Make sure the from: line has something reasonable. Random freemail accounts are <b>not</b> reasonable for this kind of message:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
from: applecare_2349fasdfer43234@pink.freemail.com </blockquote>
<br />
is clearly not an address Apple Care would use. Also, long to: long lists of people you don't know are red flags, even if your name and your e-mail server is in there:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
to: jack.rees09@sannet.ne.jp,joel.rees52@sannet.ne.jp,<br />
joel.ross12@sannet.ne.jp,jill.russet69@sannet.ne.jp,<br />
janehaskel314@sannet.ne.jp,jody35@sannet.ne.jp,<br />
james7734@sannet.ne.jp,...</blockquote>
<br />
Ask yourself, are you expecting some message related to this? If you do not participate in Pinterest and you get a message from them about your account, it almost certainly is <b>not</b> a valid message.<br />
<br />
If you aren't sure, and you feel you need to be sure, you can always contact the claimed source by some other means. Find their phone number or e-mail in their website and contact them directly.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Never click a link in an e-mail message without a really good reason.</h4>
<br />
And there usually is no good reason. Live links in e-mail messages are just bad practice, even though almost everybody uses them now.<br />
<br />
If necessary, you can right-click the link, use the context menu to copy it, and paste it into an empty text editor document so you can give the link the benefit of attention from your eyeballs.<br />
<br />
Again, look for reasonable URLs. A message from Pinterest should not contain a URL for a free website server in China or Russia:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
https://bot5773857734.serversrus.cn/asdkj324w34asd334/confirm-password</blockquote>
<br />
Is just not a link you should ever try to jump to, with a direct click or otherwise.<br />
<br />
Again, go to the website in question using publicly known URLs to find somebody to ask, if it's important. If it's not important, ignore it.<br />
<br />
People can claim anything. One of the first rules for protecting yourself is to doubt claims you have no reason to believe.<br />
<br />
Another important rule is to do the hard part of the research yourself. Learn how to look at headers and the contents of URLs.<br />
<br />
This post is not intended to teach you how to do the hard part, just putting out a heads-up: <br />
<br />
Be careful what you click.\零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2130073091225594073.post-13737315437153880392020-05-04T21:22:00.000+09:002020-07-12T17:26:20.829+09:00Vector MultipliersI guess I'm being too oblique.<br />
<br />
My cousin just shared this on <strike>BassHook</strike> Facebook:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-03/what-do-you-do-with-a-billion-taters-and-the-folks-who-grow-them?">https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-05-03/what-do-you-do-with-a-billion-taters-and-the-folks-who-grow-them?</a><br />
<br />
(If you load it too many times, it'll throw up a paywall.)<br />
<br />
Billions of potatoes, no place to put them.<br />
<br />
What is missing from the picture?<br />
<br />
Similar volumes of lettuce, cabbage, wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, ..., beef, chicken, ...<br />
<br />
All of this food must be moved from the source to some sort of consumer, or they will spoil. (Yes, with our current methods of production, we are going to have to slaughter a lot of meat that will not be going to the usual markets.)<br />
<br />
Spoil? Is that so bad? Lakes of vodka, whiskey, .... What can be bad about that?<br />
<br />
If only the spoilage would be so tame.<br />
<br />
Rats. Flies. Fleas.<br />
<br />
Germs. Bacteria. <br />
<br />
More virus.<br />
<br />
How did this pandemic start?<br />
<br />
Well, let's look at history for clues. Spanish flu? Going back even farther, the black death and the bubonic plague?<br />
<br />
It's rather simple. (Yes, <a href="https://reiisi.blogspot.com/2020/04/lessons-from-virus.html">I'm repeating myself</a>.) When you get too many people in one place without proper hygiene, with too much stress from overwork, in too close quarters with the cattle, various biologically active material brews up disease vectors. Then the vermin (Remember, everyone is too busy to be clean.) and cattle spread those vectors every direction they go.<br />
<br />
Why do people live in such conditions? Because there's no room for them on the planet?<br />
<br />
No, there is plenty of empty space on the planet, if we used it well. They are just too poor to go there, or their governments (or pseudo-governments) are too unwilling to let them go, or both.<br />
<br />
But overpopulation!!!!!<br />
<br />
... is also primarily a feature of large populations without sufficient material means, and many of the reasons for that are known. <br />
<br />
And, as I say, overpopulation is more a problem of people in power being unwilling for the poor to go away, because they depend on the population of the poor to prop up their illusions of power.<br />
<br />
We live in one of the most materially productive periods in history.<br />
<br />
How productive are we?<br />
<br />
Even without the problems of having no market to sell potatoes and other products, we, as a planetary society, dispose of enough product to feed all the poor people on the planet, and then some.<br />
<br />
If I have not mistaken the math, even with about half our total population not being directly involved in producing the basic material necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and medicine, we are productive enough to feed, clothe, shelter, and medicate twice the current population, if we were only effective at distributing it all.<br />
<br />
In spite of that level of productive, our leaders in the industries are still engaging us in a race to the bottom, still trying to raise production levels so that they can compete for even more power (as they imagine it). <br />
<br />
If you think that your politics is clean from this, look again. Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, Communists, Socialists, everybody is in on it.<br />
<br />
Why? politics requires power. Power requires profit. Profit is most easily generated in a hurry by a race to the bottom.<br />
<br />
I commented earlier that the universal pseudo-quarantine had some good side effects, in terms of giving families time to get acquainted with one another again. It was a good thing, for a week -- or even a month. We could have recovered from it at that level.<br />
<br />
Now farmers, who can least afford it, are paying from their own pockets to move the potatoes, not to the usual markets, but to anyone who will claim them. This is actually not a bad thing, if the lenders come to their senses and accept responsibility for creating the situation that requires this in the first place -- if they will simply accept the right and proper financial burden of their own fixation on hyper-competition.<br />
<br />
How can we prevent the coming pandemic aftershocks? How can we stop the death toll at the current projection of 350,000?<br />
<br />
Let's be serious.<br />
<br />
The current supply chains are rather pathological. They rely on unbalance and excessive consumerism.<br />
<br />
We are the most productive this planet has ever seen, but a huge piece of our production is wasted moving product halfway around the world. (Or farther. We are really, really inefficient.)<br />
<br />
We are the most productive this planet has ever seen, but well more than half of us are suffering from lack of material necessities and, at the same time, suffering from overwork. <br />
<br />
We are destroying enough product to provide for everyone on the planet, and yet we are still trying to find ways to work harder.<br />
<br />
And we are squelching the planet's ability to be productive. See the lakes drying up, etc.<br />
<br />
What is wrong with this picture?<br />
<br />
Could we provide enough if we depended more on local production?<br />
<br />
Would the current pandemic have spread so much if we weren't ordering things from all over the globe?<br />
<br />
My current job is delivering things. If I have a symptom-less case of the 2019 version Coronavirus, I'm going to bring something like a hundred households a day into contact with the infection vectors.<br />
<br />
After the first week, the universal pseudo-quarantine has actually been magnifying the epidemic.<br />
<br />
Does this mean we should have lots of raves?<br />
<br />
Does this mean we should give up the sudden shift to education methods that are more home-centered with on-line support and reporting?<br />
<br />
Does this mean we should go back to sixty-hour work weeks? Or even forty, when twenty will do plenty?<br />
<br />
Twenty hour work weeks would give us time to learn the things that will help us avoid the next pandemic, you know. From history.<br />
<br />
Twenty hour work weeks would also give us time to learn about the traditions we have received from our ancestors, and honor our ancestors by learning to keep the good traditions and discard the bad ones.<br />
<br />
Twenty hour work weeks would put less pressure on us to try to force ourselves and our families to conform to meaningless norms.<br />
<br />
Twenty hour work weeks would give us time to work on the supposedly non-profitable problems, like reducing the negative ecological impact of our economic activities.<br />
<br />
In the immediate cause, twenty hour work weeks would give us time to help farmers move excessive potatoes from the places where they are going to cause problems to places where they can be usefully and meaningfully consumed.<br />
<br />
And twenty hour work-weeks would give us time to learn how to take care of the basics of <a href="https://reiisi.blogspot.com/2020/04/non-medical-opinion-on-how-to-protect.html">nutrition</a> and <a href="https://reiisi.blogspot.com/2020/05/masks-protection-courtesy-and-virus.html">hygiene</a>, the lack of which is one of the reasons the virus spreads so easily in the first place. <br />
<br />
Twenty hour work weeks would give us more time to make life meaningful, and would still leave us producing enough for other people's needs.<br />
<br />
How could this be done?<br />
<br />
Speaking in the ideal, Bill Gates is easy to pick on. I'm not going to enumerate his sins here, but he clearly made excessive profits on his ephemeral products. He should not be "donating" hundreds of millions to charities (mostly profitable to himself). He should not have that money, period. And he should have gotten himself out of the way long ago, so more talented men of better vision than he could have advanced the information industry much, much farther along than it is today. <br />
<br />
But Bill Gates is only one very prominent among many.<br />
<br />
No one is justified in amassing more than enough to retire five times over. When you have that much, you should boot yourself out of the industry you made your money in and devote the rest of your life to service without remuneration.<br />
<br />
That would leave men of better vision than you (because they are not buffered from their lacks by excessive money) to take the lead.<br />
<br />
[JMR202007121717:<br />
<br />
(I've failed to repeat the conclusion. Perhaps I thought it would be obvious enough if I just said it once.) <br />
<br />
If those who have amassed such fortunes weren't sitting on their fortunes and driving the race to the bottom, ordinary individuals could be paid more to work less.<br />
<br />
Now, some people think that paying people more to work less is some sort of sin.<br />
<br />
But when it means people don't have to destroy their own health to keep food on their families' tables, it is most definitely not a sin. Or a crime.<br />
<br />
When people can take care of their families' needs without destroying their own health, most of the paths that disease vectors follow in turning into epidemics are naturally closed off, and the remainder can be more easily closed off without disrupting external society -- without disrupting business.<br />
<br />
]零石http://www.blogger.com/profile/01111094813708912513noreply@blogger.com0