Anxieties Everywhere

Thursday January 17, 9:36 a.m.

The latest translation is coming along slowly but steadily. However, I'm not a huge fan of TRADOS or at least the learning curve for me seems to be a right angle. I tried to send over a sample file to the boss only to be told that the file didn't have any translation along with the source. Well, I have 16 hours of solid work to prove that I was working on it! Something similar happened to me when I did my first translation on the software, so using another trick, it was able to pull through. I'm hoping that the same thing did the trick this time. In any case, the deadline for this one seems to be rather distant and amorphous so neither the boss nor I are particularly in panic mode. But I'm still unsure.

Japan has been having to deal with a couple of crises in the last few days. The new old Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, would only have had to deal with the usual economic woes infiltrating his country if these situations hadn't happened. But both ANA and JAL have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleets like itinerant teens since the batteries on some of the planes have been turning into (smoke) bombs at the very least. Of course, Boeing stock has been going boing at the news....and that is in the bad way. And then there is the ongoing hostage incident in Algeria in which some Japanese nationals have also been taken, although I may have heard that some of them have been released.

Buried within all that is the 18th anniversary of the Kobe Earthquake. Some events will always be remembered....the people in Kobe and the surrounding region certainly haven't forgotten. And as someone who had felt a fraction of the Tohoku Earthquake a couple of years ago in Tokyo (and that fraction was enough to sear itself into my memory forever), I can attest to that.

At the end of this, I also have to mention that Conrad Bain from "Diff'rent Strokes" has passed away. To be honest, I hadn't heard anything about him for years so that I thought he had already left this mortal coil, but he was able to live a good long life. I had no idea that he was actually born in Lethbridge, Alberta. I used to watch the show with him, Gary Coleman, Dana Plato and Todd Bridges on Thursday or Friday on NBC. It's a pity that Bridges is the only surviving member now from that series.

Now that I know Bain's connection with Canada, I can understand a bit more about his brother, Hank, being brought into that old "SCTV" sketch involving the station and alien cabbages.

Facebook, Face Music?

Monday January 14, 10:46 p.m.

I've been getting some reports and more photos of the Snow That Swallowed Tokyo via Facebook. It looks like the trains have been reporting some delays but things are moving surprisingly well. Good to hear. Still, one of my old buddies over there has been reporting that certain drivers have deigned not to switch over to chains or snow tires under the circumstances, so accidents are probably occurring. Y'know, guys....the trains are still really good there.

I read an article in "The Toronto Star" about how some people are trying to quit social networking sites such as the aforementioned FB and Twitter because they're suffering some form of fatigue or they want to show the world that, yes, they no longer want to act as if they were beholden to a digital god. And so they do so....and come sneaking back when they have those Internet withdrawal symptoms. For me, I have no problems with FB or Twitter. Facebook has been my public plaza of sorts with all the pictures and all of the FB friends showing up en masse, and since the vast majority of them are in far-flung places, it's nice to be able to keep in touch with them, even digitally. There is of course some of the personal security issues that Mark Zuckerberg seems to have some problems with, but again in my case, I don't particularly put up photos of people too much, and if any photos of me end up anywhere, I would actually take that as a compliment....as long as the site isn't some fat fetish page. For a guy who still needs to know about what's been happening in Japan (such as yesterday's storm), FB has been OK by me.

System Progressive Protection

Monday January 7, 7:36 p.m.

Feeling somewhat exhausted right now. I went toe-to-toe with my first computer virus/malware in several years earlier this afternoon. Someone once coined the phrase "Evil is banal." Well, you couldn't get more evil than "System Progressive Protection". Somehow, somewhere....despite having all of my defenses up, I got smacked in between the eyes with this sudden outburst of a fake-looking screen scanning my computer and informing me that I've got tons of viruses and that I should be paying bucks for this fake anti-virus software. I didn't visit any weird sites or download anything, but then again, anytime I'm online, there is always a chance of getting hit with a virus.

And SPP is one truculent piece of malware. Its icon is a lock and it insinuated itself with the proverbial claws. It held fast, and every few minutes, it kept haranguing me with messages about these problems and that I should get the solution....all the while preventing me from accessing any of the other legit antiviral remedies in my hard drive, as well as Hotmail. Every other site I tried to access got me a page warning me about not accessing it before it let me through. Despite my annoyance, I read enough about how insidious SPP is and then checked out YouTube to see if I could find any remedies there. There were a lot of videos and they sounded useful but every time I tried to download the needed software, the malware stopped me at every turn until I found a Trojan Killer at one site and was able to get that past the guards and kill the entire process. Glad that I could do it by myself and am better protected now. I guess it's true what they say: whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The Cosmic Barber 2

Since my most popular entry to see has been that for The Cosmic Barber (love him, too), I've decided to throw in one of his more recent videos. About twice as long as the first one as well. So, get that cup of tea, relax and be prepared to vicariously enjoy your massage for the day!

1000 Awesome Things

Wednesday April 11, 10:23 a.m.

I read an article in the Star yesterday after getting home from another enh day of sub teaching. It was about Neil Pasricha's impending end to his "1000 Awesome Things" blog. Had never heard of it until I saw it in the article. Pasricha started it just to get himself out of a bad funk in his life about 4 years ago; in it, he blogged down an amazing wonderful universal thing to be grateful for each and every day.

Kudos to him. He's gotten tens of thousands of followers. And although he wouldn't allow advertising on the blog itself, he hasn't missed the financial winfalls...he's gotten book deals and speaking engagements. It's something that any blogger would be very happy for. And it was based on a whim to cheer himself up. I would love to convert my music blog into some cold hard cash but frankly my genre is simply way too niche.