Alive but productivity = 0

Been a while since my last post. Lots of small things popping up and I've been rather lazy, not just rather, but exceptionally lazy or the past 2 weeks. I am having a hell of a time getting up in the morning, it takes me about 2~3 tries for me to get out, in the sense that I wake up once then fall back asleep and then wake up again. After a few more times I'm out of bed.

I have the easiest time getting out of bed when I have something that I want to do that morning. This is especially the case when I am traveling to different countries. I was in Taiwan last year (perhaps 2 years ago) and I had to wake up everyday at about 7:00 am because I would be going out by car with friends to go exploring around the area. I had a very easy time getting out for bed for things like that.

For days that I don't have anything planned, I generally don't have the motivation to make a swift departure from bed. I would rather spend less time sleeping and more time awake if I can help it. Moral of the story for me is to have something I want to do planned for the mornings. Might be kind of handy to get the ball rolling for my research which is somewhat stagnating at the moment.

In other news, life outside my lab had been rather active. I was in the mountains snowboarding 2 weeks ago and went to a friend's birthday the day after that. Apparently my introduction to 30 some odd people was "This is Justin and he's single." Riight. Apparently my friend, who is an English teacher in her 30's was rather impressed when I hosted my Christmas party and was surprised that I didn't have a girlfriend. She took it upon it self to try and hook me up (without me knowing) at her party...

Right after arriving, Anitia pointed me off to a corner to grab a seat. I would be surrounded by 5 office ladies in their 30's. Not my crowd, since they look like the "sit around and let's talk" type of people. We exchanged introductions and light conversation and then I was off to explore the rest of the crowd. I met up with a bunch of foreign English teachers who weren't particularly social and then finally I came across an interesting character, an English teacher that is Japanese and spent 7 years in Australia before returning to Japan. Ended up spending about half the evening talking to her and her friend before making my return home.

The week after that I would meet up another friend of mine that I haven't seen since December for dinner at a Korean restaurant and drinks at a fairly posh wine bar. The next day, I headed off to an international cooking class to learn some Chinese cooking from the international students running the event. Out of the 13~14 people there, I would be the only guy there. Apparently, most men in Japan cannot cook to save their lives. Everyone at the cooking lesson was rather surprised to find out that I am proficient with a knife. I've also garnered interest from a few people at the cooking class that are definitely keen on dong a dessert party kind of thing. I will try and set it up later on. This week I'll be going back to learn Cambodian cooking.

So that's a short update for the time being... gotta get back to work. I have a big lab presentation this weekend and need to get my slides and hand out prepped up for that.

On Doing what you Love

I watched the Macworld presentation of the iPhone last weekend. It was a Saturday night and I was reclined in my chair, with my feet on my desk with a big smirk on my face. I was looking at something beautiful, something simple and exceptionally smooth to handle. As state of the art goes, the iPhone is a real piece of art.

Have you seen the keynote yet? No? Go watch it. Seriously, just do it.

I'm not trying to sell you an iPhone-- I've got more profound things to talk about instead of just the iPhone. The iPhone is only just the beginning.

Seen it yet? Yes? Good.

Steve Jobs loves his iPhone, seriously (in more ways than one). This isn't just some commercial about some product that plays music, has a pretty interface and makes phone calls. It's a keynote speech about a guy in love with his product which is ascetic, simple, elegant, sexy and sophisticated. I wish I was talking about a girl, but unfortunately like the iPhone, such are few and rare (I would, of course, welcome anyone to prove me wrong!).

Steve Jobs understands something, and that something is beauty. And he loves it. His mission is to make what is beautiful, to him and to many other people, a reality. This is what people would call, "a work of love."

It isn't about the Money

Let me ask you something-- what do you wake up for everyday? I'm not talking about the things you have to do, like school, work or appointments, but suppose you had a billion dollars and thus no obligations what-so-ever, what would you wake up for? If you don't know, then I can tell for sure that you don't know what you love doing.

I spent most of my free time this week, reading about the character that is Steve Jobs. I've read a biography about him to figure out what inspired him. From what I learned of him is that he likes to make (or cultivate) useful beautiful things... and then sell them.

Steve is a rich man not unlike many of the other billionaires like Bill Gates ($53 billion), Warren Buffet ($46 billion), Lawrence Ellison ($19.5 billion) and more (link to Forbes 400 wealthiest People in America). The wealth these people command is astounding, billions of dollars. If each of us just had just say $2 million, we'd already be happy. But these people have billions, wealth that would be at least 500 times more than the amount of money that we'd be happy to live with. And these people and almost all of the other 400 people in that list are still working, with the least richest with $1 billion. It is obvious to me, that these people aren't working for money.

"Money is just a method of keeping score now. I certainly don't need more money. No one needs this much money." -- Lawrence Ellison (#4 Richest person in America)

What do you love doing?

Excuse the cliche, but this is really the "million dollar question." Sobering isn't it? Compared to billions, but yet the question remains the same. What is it that you love doing? Just for your information, Warren Buffet, the man with $46 billion is 76 years old and he is still doing what he does -- investing from his firm that is Berkshire Hathaway.

There are few of us that know from an early stage about the things we really want to do. There is one friend of mine, that knew that he wanted to be a pilot since at least 13. He is a pilot now and he loves his job. The tale of him becoming a pilot is a story in itself and it is plenty full of hard work (which I thought was pretty hard, but I've never heard him consider it that way) to get to where he is now.

It is unfortunate that many young people in schools never did have a real opportunity to figure this question out. Did you know why did you learn subjects like math, history, language, science and art when you were in grade school? The majority never did know, and without a reason, many never had a real motivation to study (except of course, to not fail or piss off your parents... and there are some that didn't care about that either).

As for me, I did pretty well in school, just because I thought solving interesting problems my teachers gave me were fun and I was happy when I got good grades. The question of "why are we doing this?" never bothered me-- I was just happy with getting good grades and I was happy to do same thing for the most part of my university career. The problem is that now is that I will be soon graduating and I have to find new things to do. And the one thing that I really wished is that I had a chance to find this out when I was younger instead of studying the usual things at school.

But for the rest of us, the ones that don't know what we really love doing right now, the answer to this question starts with another question, "How do I find that out?"

The only real answer that exists is to do it. You might not find it right away, but if you do sufficiently many things you will find it eventually. It will probably take some searching and sometimes your adventures will take you to strange places (the stranger, the better!) but you will find it eventually. How you will find it will probably never make any sense because of all the biographies of the people that figured it out, did not make a lot of sense either.

Bill Gates knew after working with his first computer for the first time, that this was something that he would love working with. Steve Jobs became fascinated with electronics after attending after-school lectures at Hewlett-Packard and was hired as a summer student there, where he would meet Steve Wozniak, and together they would create the business that is Apple. Mozart from the age of 5 could already play the piano and loved music.

I have not, in so far as I have lived, figured out a logical reason why people enjoy the things that we do. Ask all the greatest people in the world in their respective fields and I doubt that even they could offer a universal answer, because even they like different things!

My only advice to you is to go out and find it. When you've found it, do it.

It seems that Steve Jobs agrees (I found his talk to Stanford graduates after I finished writing this essay, and I recommend it as good reading).

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers." -- Steve Jobs

The net is hilariously immature

I found this by surfing around the net just recently. It's called wordcount. A project that tracks the frequency of words we use in the English language. Go ahead, play with it. There is a search bar at the bottom too for you to look up the frequency of certain words used in the English language. The number 1 used word is "The"! Go ahead, play with it. Pretty fascinating eh?

Okay, great. Now check this out.

We are such mature people aren't we?

I am *The* Justin of Japan!

Seems like I am making a little bit of a name for myself on the net. I have some statistics on how the outside world if finding this webpage through the search engines.

Do a search for funny statistics in life and I come out at 4th on Google.
Do a search for funny exponent problems and I come out at 4th again.
Search for student tazed on Google and I come out on top!
Finally, search for Justin Japan and guess what? I dominate at the top of Google.

Yep yep yep. Not too shabby.

Update:

Looks like I beat Justin Timberlake too!

Free time, ideas and freedom

I haven't been posting long essays or detailed analysis of anything recently because of a lack of time-- a lack of time to think and because of a lack of time to write. Today is a little different, because it's a lazy Saturday-- in that I don't have my usual Saturday marathon meetings. I spent most of the day in bed, sleeping, lounging around at home, going out getting my hair cut and eating an omelette lunch at 4 pm. Suffice to say, I had a considerable amount of free time today.

The Importance of Ideas

Most of my ideas usually occur during idle moments while I am randomly walking around, sitting around or reading a variety of articles on the net. Occasionally, a spark goes off and I've got an idea. The idea of course, requires hashing out to properly define the scope and focus of the concept. Applications and implications are then explored when the fundamental concepts are laid out and understood. When I have the whole picture in mind, it is usually then the words come out easy to explain what I know. If I start trying to explain things before I've figured things out, I usually end up meandering all over the place; there is no focus, I haven't got a point to make.

Ideas are the life blood of a sentient being-- it's the difference that makes us different from calculator tools we use such as computers. It is ideas that define the nature or the character of a human being. The lack there of, leaves a person undistinguished (in more than one senses of the meaning).

Ever talked to a person that has no opinion? Ever talked to a person that few or no interests? Realize how dull or boring your conversations are with those kinds of people? You might as well talk to a wall. By the end of the conversation you'll probably vow to never talk to that person again, because the conversation was exceptionally dry. But in fairness, what applies to other people, also applies to you. So what do you do to prevent this from happening to you?

Making time

If you want to be interesting you are going to need time to gather inspiration and cultivate ideas. In order to do this, you are going to need free time; free time to explore, to get exposure to new knowledge and finally organize thoughts. Personal growth is a result of 2 things; ideas and action. If you don't have any ideas, then you're not going to get to the action; again, in many senses of 'action.' Good ideas are sexy, for example Apple's new iPhone is incredibly sexy (I also suggest reading or watching the keynote). What were you thinking about?

If you want to be interesting and have ideas (the both are synonymous), it boils down to time-- you need time to think! Unfortunately I've fond that either many people don't have the time, or just simply don't.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. ~ Albert Einstein

Got a busy job? Is the only thing that you have energy for during the day is going to work and coming back exhausted, vegging out at home and repeating the cycle the next day? If your job doesn't involve using your brain or if you're not using your brain on the job, then I will assure you that you could be stuck doing that job, for as long as you or that job exists. I think that's where someone might have gotten the idea of a union to protect jobs. I for one, think that there are better ideas to be had, but I digress. The main point here is, if you don't think, you're never going to grow. Make or find the time.

I've had that problem before, I've had mindless boring jobs where I would stare at satellite pictures all day while aligning roads and bodies of water to maps. They didn't really need my brain for that job, they just needed someone to do the job and I was also paid as much as they valued me (which was fairly little). I sat there for 6 months doing that job without using my brain for most days killing time to make a worthless buck.

If there was a way to turn a person's life time into money, I had just discovered it right there-- the going rate was $10/hr. Want to put a price on life? The going rate for some places could be $7200 for a month, including the time you slept. If someone offered you $7200 but you'd die a month earlier than expected, would you take the deal? Working a brain dead job is the same thing. I'll presume that you value yourself more then that.

If you want to save yourself from that kind of position, then learn how to save time. The time that you make for yourself can be used to come up with more ideas to save you more time and it just gets better from there. One day, you'll end up doing the things that you want to do instead of the things that you must.

Knowledge is power. So are ideas.

The Ubiquitous Convienence Store

In Canada, I'd almost never stop at the convenience store for anything in Canada -- too damn expensive and the selection is far to small. In Japan, however. I could almost literally live on one.

I will admit that the prices are higher at convenience stores than the ordinary stores (by on average of about 20% or 30% compared to other stores) but they do a very good job of stocking the essentials. I live near the center of Sendai and usually come home pretty late from lab. Meaning I can't usually hit the regular stores unless if it's a weekend or I go in the mornings.

I just went to the 7-11 just yesterday night to restock on some supplies, ended up getting a toothbrush, toothpaste, gel and floss. If I needed breakfast or a late dinner, I can also stock up on rice balls for $1. If I have 2 of those for breakfast, then they'll usually hold me over till lunch when I have some time to eat something real.

There are also 24 hour dollar shops in Japan selling almost anything you might need. I've been meaning to document these stores for a long time but I don't generally lug around my large camera with me, unless going on a trip or to special events. Fruits, snacks and more are sold there at reasonable volumes for only a buck Well, $1.05 after a 5% sales tax! What?? 5% sales tax? And get this, almost all prices in Japan have tax included already. Doesn't that make life so much easier?

I had a hell of a time getting used to prices when I was in Canada last time I was around in town. After thinking that I'd be spending about $20 in purchases, the real price would it about $23 easy. A $3 price differential isn't something to sneeze at! Just imagine the differential when spending larger sums of cash. I used to be good a calculating GST and PST on the fly, it seems those neurons have gone since coming to Japan.

Response to Sasha

It seems that Sacha in his post has layed down the gauntlet for me to publish some obscure facts about myself. There's a lot about me that even I don't know, probably because I have a bad memory but everyone knows about that. So here's my little list of very obscure facts about myself:

1. When I was 4, I had a fascination with boiling water. I decided that I would test the adage that "a watch pot doesn't boil" by doing exactly that, watching a pot full of water boil. I jumped on the counter right beside the stove and stared at the pot. Unfortunately what transpired was that the pot was over filled and toppled over spilling hot water on my right arm. I still have a faint mark on my right arm, but it's considerably lighter than what it used to be.

2. When I was 5, I broke my arm while playing freeze tag in Kindergarten. My shoe lace wasn't tied up right and I tripped over it and landed on my left elbow. All I knew at the time was that it it wasn't moving right and the PE teacher (Mr. Wilson) took me to the staff room where my parent's were notified and I was taken to the hospital to get it put into a cast.

3. I had a terrible sense of direction and couldn't tell left from right. How I did eventually learn it was from looking at the burn mark on my arm. The burn mark was on the right side!

4. My first experience with a computer was when I was 2.5 years old with an Apple e II computer. I recall being taught how to program for the first time by my dad when I was about 3 or 4. The program went something like this:

10 print "Hello world"
20 goto 10

Then all I had to type was "run 10" to execute the program that would print "Hello world" indefinitely on the computer.

5. When I was 7 and in the computer lab of my school, I realized that all the computers at the time were Apple e II computers. When the teacher wasn't looking, I played my first prank-- I used my programming know how to print "Fatal error" on all the computers and turned off all the monitors. The teacher that ran the lab that turned on the computer freaked out. Tee-hee!

6. I did drama school when I was 10 for about a year every Wednesday. Hard to believe no? For the drama school play, I was originally supposed to play a character with lots of lines. I hated memorizing at the time and couldn't do it. I ended up as a donkey's ass.

And well, there you go! Bet'ya didn't know that about me!

Appi New Year's Trip Photo album

I finally had the chance to get the photos together, fix up a few and throw together a little album. I went with a group of 6 people. Most of us hardly knew each other because we were invited through a mutual friend, but it was great anyways. I'll tell you this much, you learn a lot about people when you spend just a few days with them! Click on the picture to check out the photo album!


Everyone in the car ready for our trip to the mountains!

Seminar Presentation Prep

Got an in-lab seminar to give tomorrow. Just started preparing today, meaning I've got a bunch of preparation to do. Tomorrow's topic is going to be on a simple introduction into scripting AutoCAD for silicon mask design. Most people here do it by hand but I've found a way to use an external program to make the design work a lot easier. What they do in a day, I can do in an hour.

Pictures of the ski trip are still in the works. I have to touch up some of the pictures (ie, up the contrast, play with the brightness do some cropping and etc) before I upload them. But in the mean time, enjoy these few pics of my new year's ski trip.


Hiroko throwing a snowball at Greg


Me at the top of Appi Mountain

More pretty pictures to follow, next week.

Happy New Year!

Just got back from a Ski trip today with a crew of 6. Spent 2 nights and 3 days on the mountain. Great stuff. Snow boarded for a day and then went skiing for the rest. The weather started off with snow and got progressively better until the new years, where there was not a single cloud in the sky. I have plenty of photos and I'll have an album up later on.

Anyways, there will be more talk later on. These next few days will be busy with events.

May your new year's resolutions come true!