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JAPANESE SAYINGS (aka kotowaza): Binbo hima nashi
貧乏暇なし
びんぼひまなし
Literally: poverty free time lacks
Better: poverty has no free time, poor people have no free time
generally used as a self-deprecating gesture
I'm poor, so I have no free time
(and my friend points out that there is a certain element of pride there, too. I'm so busy -- and undervalued -- that I have no free time)
So... 貧乏暇なし gotta -
It Costs Too Much!
About 15 years ago now, I happened to be talking with a manager who really was not a software type at all. He was explaining a problem that really bothered him, having to collect a bunch of numbers and information, and then do some calculations on it. I listened to him complain, scratched my head a little bit, and said, "Would you like my group to ( Read more... ) -
Perfect vs. Good Enough
I'm sure many people have similar stories. But about 35 years ago or so, our company was busily beginning to use Fortran to produce programs for our 8080-based systems. We had done lots of assembly language before. But this was an experimental time, changing over to rapid development using higher order language. When we started looking at what we ( Read more... ) -
Writing Excuses 11.49: Elemental Ensemble, with Michael Damian Thomas
Writing Excuses 11.49: Elemental Ensemble, with Michael Damian Thomas
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/12/04/11-49-elemental-ensemble-with-michael-damien-thomas/Key points: Ensembles are more than just heist stories. Ensemble stories have a team of specialists, each with a different role and part to play, who get together to accomplish some ( Read more... ) -
Am I Eating Wrong?
Mitsuko and I were watching one of the TV shows common here in Japan, with the TV talents happily eating something or other, with extreme expressions of joy as they chew and swallow, followed by ecstatic declarations of how tasty it was... Which is when I realized that there's something wrong with us ( Read more... ) -
Practice Emergency Drone Flying?
This morning the news had a short piece about a group doing their practice emergency drone flights. I missed the location, but this is an area that has had some kind of major disaster in the recent past. The guy was showing us pictures from that -- looked like a flood or mudslide, might have been an avalanche? And he was explaining that one of the ( Read more... ) -
Is that a vending machine?
Morning news had a brief piece about a new vending machine here in Japan. Basically, it looks like a billboard, with the vendor or other information on it, until a customer gets close enough. Then it switches over to a display of the various offerings. You have to know enough to press the offering (I think they should have put clearly marked " ( Read more... ) -
Restoring power after an earthquake causes fires?
We're watching a retrospective about the Great Hanshin Earthquake. One of the points that they raised is that at least some of the fires that followed the earthquake were due to resuming electrical service! See, apparently when the earthquake hit, power shut down. And in many places, of course, lights, electrical heaters, and other gadgets got ( Read more... ) -
Barton Street Gym... A Review
Barton Street Gym by Zoey Ivers and Pam Uphoff
One important point. When I finished reading it, I immediately looked for the next in the series (Chicago!) and bought that. Which should indicate what I thought about this book.
Who should read it? Everybody! It's a romp, basically following two young people (14 and 16 years old, so I suppose this ( Read more... ) -
Driverless? Or Driver PLUS?
Aha!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/68851173/the-automated-dilemma-how-to-keep-drivers-from-feeling-like-robotsThere is an oddity. Apparently people are using the term "driverless" for automated cars, and most people are very nervous about that term. The aids -- automated braking, collision avoidance, lane tracking, and so forth -- they are ( Read more... )