Teknohazard Blog

I wonder if I take myself too seriously sometimes…

“[...] If we are never to worry, what shall we do with the things which incline us to worry? There are many such things in the life, even of the most warmly sheltered. There are disappointments which leave the hands empty after days and years of hope and toil. There are resistless thwartings of fondly cherished plans and purposes. There are bereavements which seem to sweep away every earthly joy. There are perplexities through which no human wisdom can lead the feet. There are experiences in every life—whose natural effect is to disquiet the spirit and produce deep and painful anxiety. If we are never to worry, what are we to do with these things which naturally tend to cause us worry? The answer is easy—we are to put all these disturbing and distracting things—into the hands of our Father!

Of course, if we carry them ourselves—we cannot help worrying over them! But we are not to carry them; we cannot if we would! Up to the measure of our wisdom and our ability—we are to calculate our lives, and shape our circumstances. What people sometimes call trust is only indolence; we must meet life heroically. But when we have done our whole simple duty—there both our duty and our responsibility end!

We cannot hold back the wave which the sea flings upon the beach; we cannot control the winds and the clouds and the other forces of nature; we cannot keep away the frosts which threaten to destroy our summer fruits; we cannot shut out of our doors, that sickness which brings pain and suffering; or that sorrow which leaves its poignant anguish! We cannot prevent the misfortune which comes through others, or through public calamity. In the presence of all this class of evils—we are utterly powerless; they are irremediable by any wisdom or strength of ours! Why, then, should we endeavor to carry them, only to vex ourselves in vain with them!” — J.R. Miller, Don’t Worry (Please leave a comment if this link is broken, so that I can take it down).

Man… people really knew how to write, back then! This guy still remembers the volatility of the English language– he remembers how to stretch it’s conventions to the limit and express himself. Besides, he has a short, sweet, and life-changing message, doesn’t he? Give yourself a little time and read the whole thing. It’s definitely worth it.

“Watch your backs and keep your noses clean.” — Mr. Mafioso, Men’s Magazine

… was a Mountain Dew. Now my head is clear, at least for the next few minutes.

Well, I finally finished using the last of the ingredients from the taco kit my parents sent me. Just a package of taco sauce, which I mixed with taco shells from Don Quixote, lettuce and tomatoes from Mochizuki, and ground meat from the newly rebuilt Shizutetsu supermarket. There isn’t much ground beef over here; the delis have been mixing it with ground pork in order to continue selling beef at a reasonable price in spite of the Mad Cow Embargo. (hee hee! Let this be a lesson; misinformed decision-making can lead to all kinds of stupid behaviour. Reminds me of The King and I, and all the work the heroine had to go through to try and coax a medieval nation to adopt scientific thinking. In the movie, it only took about 117 minutes; in real life, it apparently takes hundreds of years.)

I polished off the tacos with another Mountain Dew. Pity, seems I’ve totally failed to curb my caffeine addiction. Oh well, just a few more days, and finals will be over, and I won’t be forcing myself to stay up until three o’clock in the morning to memorize 600 vocabulary words I’m not going to remember tomorrow afternoon, after the test.All this negativity is beginning to encroach upon my poor self-esteem… I’d better go see a therapist. And this culture shock… Oh!, It’s just terrible. I’m suffering from the Honey-moon, initial shock, stabilization, culture-shock, and reintegration stages all at once! I’d better go drink another Mountain Dew…

Seriously though, walking downtown today as the sun was setting, listening to the cicadas singing in the trees and enjoying the warm summer evening, looking up and seeing skyscrapers and feeling perfectly relaxed and at home, I thought, … I think I’m ready to stay here. The longer I live here, the more it feels like home. Very confusing, since, when I got home, I listened to KVNO on the internet for the first time in several months, and it brought back all kinds of images and memories and made me miss Omaha. The only thing that’s kind of too bad about my choice to live in Japan is that I won’t be able to live in Omaha, and the only drawback of living in Omaha would be that I wouldn’t be able to live in Japan.

Like I said, very confusing. I guess I’ll have to settle for a happy medium, listening to Haydn’s 84th symphony and eating tacos in Shizuoka, while I study for my final exams.The only disadvantage of living alone is that it can be pretty boring sometimes…