When I reached 1st dan in calligraphy earlier this year, I needed to submit two works. One was freehand. The other was a copy. The following is what I needed to copy. And here is my copy. I should have let the ink dry up a bit more, but I think that the shape of … More Two Waka
Book Review Tomorrow’s Kin By Nancy Kress There is some debate in real life whether my reaction to the premise of this novel is nature or nurture. The premise of Tomorrow’s Kin is: Aliens come, dock in New York Harbor, talk only to the UN, and start calling genetic scientists. I was raised on Childhood’s … More Book Review – Tomorrow’s Kin
In psychology, they say there are four stages of competence. They rise like this: 1) Unconscious Incompetence, when you suck so bad you don’t even know how bad you suck, 2) Conscious Incompetence, when you know you suck and just exactly how badly, 3) Conscious Competence, when you are good but you really gotta concentrate … More Conscious Incompetence- Shodan Style
I read John Scalzi’s blog fairly often. He has a section called Big Idea, where he introduces scifi novels, collections, etc. I found The Promise of Space and Other Stories there. I wanted short. I wanted scifi. I was in the right mood to buy the book. As an impulse, I bought the e-version on … More Book Review – The Promise of Space and Other Stories
I started Shodo four years ago as a way to help my youngest on her kanji tests in school, never with the intention of pursuing it seriously. Something about how my Sensei teaches, and the regularity of studying together every week changed my attitude. Below is my official certificate that I reached shodan, first dan … More Shodan
A great friend of mine works in the movie industry all over the world. He’s based in Japan, so most of his work is here, but his work takes him all over. A couple of years back, I really wanted to see what his work was like. It was also when drones were becoming more … More Movie Credits
The best part of the level up test is when you can write free hand. Normally, I have to copy as perfectly as possible. That can be fun but a little boring. Of course, Sensei always helps with composition, but I really do have a free hand. This time, the assignment was the following waka … More Kana Level-up Test
