Long Time Expat In Japan
Finally made it up one level in kanji. It has only taken me... gulp, 7 months to get here. Kind of a long time, but I can feel a big difference in my ability. This last week at my lesson, I had to write a month's worth of kanji, kana, andpenji. While it wasn't great, … Continue reading Kanji – level 9 !
5-Minute Screen Play Adapt or Die FADE IN: EXT. THIRD WORLD SLUMS, DIRT ROAD – MORNING Morena, a young woman, walks briskly toward a bus heading toward her on the dirt road. The bus is packed with people, some are sitting in the windows. Others are hanging off the sides. The top of the bus … Continue reading Adapt or Die
I'm starting a new series, a creative one. I find myself with a lot of short story ideas lately. Not sure whether I want to flesh them out or not, I will at least write down the ideas in screenplay form. I think of it as a way to write story outlines. Those I like, … Continue reading 5 – Minute Screenplays
5-Minute Screen Play A Human Being Should SCENE 1 FADE IN: INTERIOR – BABY NURSERY, FARM HOUSE – MORNING The morning sun shines through the venetian blinds and paints bright yellow grill marks on the wall and ceiling. A woman, Roberta Anson, steps into view, smiling despite the dark circles under her eyes. She looks … Continue reading A Human Being Should
Surprisingly, I leveled up in the kana section of Shodo! Again! This was doubly unexpected because it is both hard for my classmates, or so I'm told, and also because I have never had any formal education in Japanese. I studied Kanji in Chinese, and even took a couple of lessons in Shodo (which they … Continue reading Level Up! Lvl 8 Kana
In February I was really pleased to say that I was, again, not last. As you can see below, I'm plugging along well enough. The first is kanji. https://bsdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/janfebkanji.jpg Then here is my pen submission. I must admit, I'm kind of struggling here, but still not last. https://bsdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/janfebpen.jpg But below is the really exciting part. … Continue reading Level up!
My good friend, Christian Storms told me about a job he had down in Kagoshima. He's doing a corporate about some research on volcanoes and ash. The research is related to the volcano eruption in Iceland that grounded airplanes in Europe back in 2010. He invited me to do some drone shots for the project, … Continue reading Volcano Eruption in Sakurajima
https://vimeo.com/119314965 In 2012, the empty land next to us finally got built out. It's a rare thing in Japan to have undeveloped land. My neighborhood is pretty rare that way. The reason is simple though; it's all reclaimed land. 20 years ago this was ocean, or harbor anyway. Originally, that land was supposed to be … Continue reading Building Time Lapse
This week, my kanji submission for shodo is onko chishin. See below for a picture. Roughly translated, it means "know history's mistakes." https://bsdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/img_0464.jpg The kanji we need to submit is often a four word idiom, what they call a Yoji Jukugo. Yoji = four word. Jukugo = idiom. So there's no real mystery there. But … Continue reading 温故知新 – Know History’s Mistakes
I love the hyperlinked world of the internet. After having just read Feed, a post zombie apocalypse novel by Mira Grant, I was curious about the genre and how it has changed. Curious enough to dig a little bit. I felt, but could not prove, that zombies seem to be a lot more visible in … Continue reading A Quasi-Analytical Look at Zombie Mind Share
B.S. Donovan 
