The Semi-Coherent Ramblings of a Canadian in Asia
The other day I observed a silly little thing and thought "I'll need to remember this for Sunday's call" only to be reminded a split second later that there are no more Sunday calls. It was an odd moment because, for the better part of four years, Sunday night was dedicated to calling my mum. Schedules were planned around the block of time that was not to be missed; 10pm to some point…
Today was Mother's Day around the world and, like many people, I called my mum to mark the occasion. This was a call that I was looking forward to making as the phone number will be disconnected in the next couple of days as one of my sisters takes care of emptying her apartment, closing accounts, and notifying relatives. After nearly 25,000 days on this earth, my mum passed away at the young…
Forty-seven doesn't seem all that old anymore. Strands of white add a little variation to a mostly-full head of light brown hair. The goatee is just the same as it has been for years. Muscles don't ache like they used to and I sleep like a log most nights. A lot of the warnings my parents, aunts, and uncles used to tell me about "life after 40" seem to be little more than personal…
This week I have been waking up with bright sunlight hitting my face just a few minutes before the alarm signals the start of the day. During these quiet minutes I stare at the ceiling and think about the things I need to do, the things I didn't do, and the things I'm actively avoiding. Today it was Ayumi's vet visit, client work deadlines, and income tax filing. Nothing egregiously…
On March 18, 2025, I woke up in the morning unemployed for the first time in over a decade. Almost 11 months have passed, and I have yet to find gainful employment anywhere. A handful of freelance work has helped pay the bills, but I've been slowly emptying the house by selling things and living off very careful credit card use. In January I was introduced to a company looking for people to…
Another year is upon us and, with it, an excuse to leave behind old things and consider something new. This has certainly been the case for me as there are just two resolutions I will aim to stick to this year. The first is to avoid following the news, and the second is to play with video production the same way I used to play with software development; fast and loose. During the final weeks of…
This past Monday I went into the city for an interview. The position was one I thought would be interesting, as it has absolutely nothing to do with technology. One could argue that it is almost a direct opposite of tech. If hired, I would be standing at the entrance of an upscale brand store like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, greeting visitors while opening the door. This seems like an odd thing for…
Over the past four months I have struggled with direction. What needs to be done is clear: pay the bills. How to do it? That remains a mystery. As such, I've looked over to Ayumi on several hundred occasions and admitted the fact. I don't know what to do, Puppy Dog. I don't know what to do. It's always said twice, separated by one of the more obvious nicknames assigned to my…
Over the past few years I have noticed a distinct drop in creative output. I don't like it. Something needs to change. Like a lot of people, I spent a great deal of my youth creating things. From elaborate pencil drawings to excessively wordy novellas to ephemeral worlds inhabited by whatever toys I had available. Over the years, this creativity evolved to include long-loved activities like…
After almost six months of oppressive heat and humidity, the weather has finally started to cool down enough to warrant bringing Ayumi on longer drives. With a forecasted mid-afternoon temperature of 28˚C, I threw caution to the wind and decided in the early morning that we would cross over the mountains and head to the west coast of the country to Tojinbo, Fukui. This place is not a popular…
A friend recently admitted to being jealous of the amount of time that I have every day. Every day he wakes up before six o'clock, travels 90 minutes into the office, works for about ten hours, then battles rush hour traffic for two hours to get home. Monday to Friday belongs to his employer, Saturday is half spent in bed, and Sunday is the day he buys groceries and performs the various…
Six months. That's how long I've been without income. Several thousand hours have been invested in all sorts of projects, but none have resulted in a single cent making its way to my bank account. That I've been able to get by for so long despite all the payouts to tax offices, lawyers, and the estranged wife is nothing short of astounding given my historic spending patterns.…
In recent weeks, two opinion pieces in Canada's National Post newspaper — Alister Adams' "AI threatens the lifeblood of democracy" and Paul W. Bennett's "AI isn't revolutionising learning. It's mimicking original thought" — have painted a bleak picture of generative AI as a corrosive force in journalism and education. Both writers warn that large language models (LLMs) are…
People across Japan recently enjoyed a three-day weekend filled with fireworks, festivals, and family outings. The holiday marks the start of summer break for students, giving families a chance to escape their usual routines. One of my neighbours took the opportunity to pack the family van and disappear into the mountains for a few days of camping and bonding — perhaps one of their last summer…
In my mailbox yesterday was an unexpected bill from the government, formally asking that I pay this year's income taxes. These are calculated based on the previous year's income and are generally deducted from a person's pay cheque every month. However, as I've not had any income to deduct from for 100 days, the government is naturally inclined to seek its tithe directly.…
My grandfather once said something that puzzled me as a child but has grown clearer with age: "This house is too big for me." At the time, it seemed like an odd complaint. Who wouldn't want more space? But now, decades later, I understand what he meant. The issue isn't just the upkeep or the quiet echo of memories in every room. Those things play a part, of course. But more than that, I…
A few nights ago I had a dream where I was dead and, as a ghost, I felt compelled to complete a few objectives before giving in to the light. This dream was interesting in that it was the first where I witnessed my own death—a moment not marked by fear or spectacle, but by stillness, followed by the out-of-body experience that comes with being a spirit. There was no funeral. There was no…
Over the past few months, the skies above my home have gone from mostly quiet—aside from the occasional airliner or Air Force training run—to annoyingly loud, as private helicopters now regularly buzz between Nagoya and Toyota. While I don't live directly between the two cities, my neighbourhood sits along a frequently used flight path that avoids restricted airspace. As a result, we're…
Over the past few months I've invested a remarkable amount of time and money into studying and working with AI systems. Not only the commercial products like ChatGPT and Deepseek, but locally hosted models from Ollama and HuggingFace. There's enormous potential not just to use these tools to achieve goals, but to collaborate with them—solving problems just beyond our current ability.…
Lately, I've been building things nobody asked for. For much of the past decade I have been writing software that aimed to solve problems that were – intentionally or otherwise – created by power-seeking people. The programs were a reaction to the top-down enforcement of arbitrary rules that could never be justified when questioned. Thinking through the most successful projects, they all…
Over the past few weeks I've had a number of conversations with people about tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek and what they mean to overall creative endeavours. A lot of people, myself included, are under the impression that if the value of human creativity is effectively zero, fewer people will be encouraged to invest the time needed to become proficient in a skill. Why struggle for 10,000…
Over the past few months, I've been making a conscious effort to use my computers more like an average person might. For most of the last decade, my machines were primarily development tools—quiet, obedient servants running code I'd written to solve specific problems. They answered only to me, rarely interacting with cloud services. When I wanted an application framework, I built one.…
Today marks one full month since I've been unemployed. To commemorate the milestone, a string of emails from Google arrived, letting me know that nearly every site I've registered—Tiinii, Kikk, WanPark, and Japan-Cafe—has been almost completely de-indexed. All four went from over 90% indexed to nearly invisible in the span of a week, rendering hundreds of hours of effort—and not a small…
Every Sunday I call my mum in Canada for a long chat. These calls give us a chance to catch up on the past week and explore whatever topics happen to come up as our conversation meanders along. Given my current employment situation, she asked about the various projects I'm working on to earn money and whether I've had any recent job interviews. As of last week, I've "earned" a grand…
Two years ago, I picked up an iPad Air hoping it would support my Bible study efforts. For the most part, it has. With multiple translations at my fingertips, I've been able to explore various interpretations of ancient texts, especially when facing questions that seem to circle back to the same core issues. As expected, the iPad's role expanded over time — serving as a navigation…