Long Time Expat In Japan
This month's kanji reads hakugan soushin in Japanese, or baiyan shuangxin in Chinese. Like a lot of these four character sayings, it evokes sense imagery and invites you to fill in the gaps. Hakugan (baiyan) means white goose. Sou (shuang) means frost. And shin (xin) means to believe, to know, to inform. Long story short, when … Continue reading November Shodo
I am not a user of Uber. I think it fair to state this up front. My reason for not using Uber has nothing to do with my feelings about the company or the service. I think it is perfectly fine as a service. I have read some controversial things about hiring practices (if you … Continue reading Where is the Open Source Uber?
Book Review The Bone Clocks By David Mitchell Cover Image from Amazon.com As time passes (what I really mean is, as I get older) I am increasingly unforgiving about what I read. If a novel doesn't appeal, I will give it 60 pages to recapture my interest. If, after those sixty pages, it has recaptured … Continue reading Book Review – The Bone Clocks
It is slightly less than a month since I made my public declaration. One month without video games or TV. The fact that I am writing this less than a month on should give you a hint. No, I did not, in fact make it a month without. On the 15th I had what some … Continue reading Screen Withdrawal – pt 2
Book Review Methods of Persuasion By Nick Kolenda Image from Amazon.com This is the second book on marketing and influence I read in the past six months. The first was Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion, which was new to me, but not a new book. The two were quite similar. They both used anecdotes … Continue reading Book Review – Methods of Persuasion
Kanji I wrote earlier about Gan Shinkei (aka Yan Zhenqing) and his writing style. I kind of fell head over heels for this style. Sensei tells me that I will probably rank up with this submission. If so then that would be awesome. Kana has always been better for me, still not sure why. … Continue reading October Shodo
I found myself with some free time early Sunday evening. The kids were out with their mother, and I had a new camera to try out. My Panasonic GH4 is a lot of fun. The ISO on the camera reaches 25,600, which I shouldn't complain about. Even 3-4 years ago, that was the state of … Continue reading Rainbow Bridge Time Lapse
Great Chinese calligraphers of old were also great drinkers. The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup (飲中八仙) were Tang Dynasty scholars known for their love of wine. Probably the best known was Zhang Xu, who used to get so plastered, he'd write calligraphy with his own hair. When he finally sobered up, he could never … Continue reading Honoring the 8 Immortals of the Wine Cup
image from genius.com On at least one occasion, though probably more, I have written that I live in Chiba, and that's the place where the novel Neuromancer begins, "The sky was the color of a tv tuned to a dead channel." Clearly, I like the reference; I am a scifi fan. I also like how … Continue reading Screen Withdrawal
My sensei turned me on to a style of calligraphy based on a famous calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. Yan Zhenqing (Gan Shinkei in Japanese) was a governor during the Tang Dynasty. Apparently he was pretty wild at the time. His style had really thick vertical lines with thin horizontals. What I wrote here is … Continue reading Yan Zhengqing Style
B.S. Donovan 