Joining the pack…

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for almost a year now. It was originally written when I was living in Japan, and it was meant to go down a different road… Oddly, it seems to have come back into relevance, so I’m editing it to fit my desired theme and running with it:

If there’s one thing you notice when you first hit Japan, it’s that you stand out like a sore thumb. In this case, I’m not refering to the fact that I’m a 6′4″ anglo-european guy and was living in a country populated by predominantly 5′6″ asian people, but rather to the fact that I didn’t have a cell phone. Don’t get me wrong - I knew life without my cellphone would be bad. But this was seriously like having an arm cut off. Or possibly like discovering that all Santa’s left you for Christmas is a lump of coal and some socks (that’re really from Aunt Polly - but let’s face it, as a kid you don’t know what came from where). It’s that bad. So within the first week, I was off to Ikebukuro with a friend to get my very own 携帯電話. That’s cell phone for those of you who don’t speak the lingo. This happened again when I got back from Japan, too. In Japan, at least, many of my friends didn’t have cell phones either. In the US, I was the only one out of contact.

I recently rediscovered this unpleasant situation during the minor crisis I had with my laptop. I got it back Wednesday and was informed - to my utter horror - that “nothing is wrong with it”. That’s the kiss of death with troubleshooting computer problems, in layman’s terms it translates to “We have no idea what’s wrong, but we’re glad it’s not our problem anymore!” Fortunately, I’m a tech-savvy person and was able to fix the problem. Backed up a lot of my stuff, too - just in case. For one evening, though, I stared long and hard into the abyss and pondered the implications of an immediate future without my laptop. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

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Computer trouble…

I hate the words “computer trouble”. Even reading it, there’s this negative image of computers that pops up in my mind. Of course, I’m a little biased - I spend 6+ hours a day around my computer.

Which is why I’ve been so AWOL recently… I got back from Kenyon College last Monday and, to my horror, found that my computer wouldn’t boot. After a few attempts to fix the problem myself (I reseated the RAM - made sense given the error…), I finally took it to the business school’s tech center to have it repaired. They gave me a loaner, so I’ve been able to do work, but it’s been so long that I’d forgotten what it’s like to use a computer other than my own. It’s kind of disturbing not having all my bookmarks, all my preferences, my favorite programs. I actually found out where that virus last year came from when I tried to install my alarm clock on this computer - turns out it’s bundled with a downloader trojan.

Still no word on what’s wrong with my baby, but I’m getting kind of worried. In the mean time, my USB keys have been fully updated with the usual suite of programs. If only they had a WordpressPortable plugin suite…

Wounded Game Theory

The other day I posted a rather long quote on the Tumble about so-called “Wounded Game Theory”. Having had a chance to discuss it with those friends of mine who happen to be of the male persuasion, I’ve discovered that she’s actually startlingly correct.

On some things anyways. It’s like this: far from being a kickback to our dark, primeval past, this phenomenon hints at something which is actually quite a recent phenomenon. With the rise of male image stereotyping in media, guys (especially college-aged guys) are becoming more and more self-conscious. Now days, many of the same self-confidence issues that people stereotype women with are becoming more and more prevalent among men. What does that mean to you? Y’all make yourselves too inaccessible. Especially when you’re all “prettied up”.

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Thoughts on Beginnings and Ends

When I first created this blog (a year ago this week!), I was facing a pretty hefty beginning. I was leaving my native country for the first time to live abroad in a (not so) strange land and, lured by the apparent fame of travel and personal bloggers whose every spare thought is deemed credible by their legions of readers, I had high hopes for chronicling every detail of it.

As much as my time abroad was definitely a beginning, it was also an end. While the actual experience of studying abroad was far from the life-changing experience it’s touted to be (hence the lack of deep, insightful posts while there?), the time I spent there and the time I spent building up to that experience did change me. I began to spend slightly less time online, preferring to talk to people in “real life” instead; I began focusing more on “getting out there” and “experiencing my environment”; and most important of all, I made the decision to be more honest and open with the people around me.

I thought about that decision tonight as I waved goodbye and yelled after her, “Call me if you’re back early on Sunday!” She yelled back that she would as she crossed the street and entered campus proper. The girl in question and I have been friends since day one - the first day of freshman year. There was a time when we saw each other almost every day. Lately, though, with a plethora of excuses like “increased workload”, “job hunting” and “hectic schedules”, we’ve found it harder and harder to make the time. This sort of dodging defines our relationship - or at least my side of it. There have been times when I hoped we might become more than just friends, and times when I knew things would never work out if we were.

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