By writing, you hold your thoughts accountable. Putting them down onto the page, or screen in my case, puts them out into the world, and putting anything out into the world means putting them up for scrutiny. This means you have to have a strong argument, otherwise it will be ripped apart. Sometimes I put […]

Of course it's good to care about what those who mind think about you, but I don't think you should listen to it all the time. If they have compelling arguments, listen. If their arguments don't stack up in your mind, don't worry. If they were truly dear to you they should have an unconditional […]

When we recently went to NZ, my wife pointed out that many of the shops had changed in the short period of time, one year, since we had been there. What that shows to me, is that the café and restaurant business in Wellington is a tough one. Restaurants that I felt were excellent had […]

Just before I was at my uni's commencement ceremony, which is an event to mark the start of the school year. Well, when the grad students were giving their introductory remarks, one student commented on how wonderful it was that everyone standing with him was different in a number of ways; different nationality, different hometown, […]

I don't know why Japanese people feel the need to speak English to me. Most often they don't, but every once in a while I get some people who insist on speaking English to me even when I speak to them in Japanese. What I really want to know though, is how people who look […]

The only thing we know for certain, is that there are no certain things. Change is inevitable. That's why you have to be ready for it. If you aren't ready for it, you'll be left behind when things change. But why resist it? Certain is boring. When things become predictable, it takes the fun out […]

If something is interesting to you, is it interesting to me? Most likely no. (I should probably tell my wife this, but) Dreams are a good example. They seem interesting to you, but who likes to hear the dreams of other people? Besides maybe fortune tellers, no-one! I'm not a fortune teller, nor do I […]