The Middle Way...

Hey, everyone! Seems like I can upload a new post once a week lately! I wish I could post twice a week, but I guess that's impossible for me at least for now... *sigh*

Alright. In this post, I am going to write about balance. Life (and all the facets of life) is all about balance (= moderation). Sounds so simple, doesn't it? But it's easier said than done actually, at least for me!

I am pretty bad at keeping a good, healthy balance in many aspects of my life. For example, I am a hard worker. It might sound strange to say something like this about myself, but I truly am. lol I don't try to find a way to look like I'm working hard when I'm just sabotaging. When I have a homework assignment to do, I really work hard on it. I don't write trashy papers. When I have to write a paper, I always do my best to write a good one, one that is interesting enough for the professor to read it. I would hate myself so much if I did try to write a boring one just to finish the paper more quickly so that I could free myself from the duty. Moreover, I don't want to waste the professor's time by forcing him to read my meaningless paper. Isn't it rude, don't you think?

I know, it's good to be hardworking; it should be encouraged. But sometimes, it gets too much and too intense. Sometimes (or more than sometimes...? lol), I even feel guilty about taking a break. I feel like I should be studying more, instead of watching Netflix (Oh, by the way, have you watched Iron Fist? I highly recommend it! If you haven't watched it, stop reading this blog, and go watch it right away! lol) or reading comic books even when I deserve a good break. There are other examples like this. When I assign myself a rule, say, "I am going to eat healthy," I need to eat 100% healthy 100% of the time. I would eat lots of vegetables, no junk foods, and I would not have snacks or desserts at all. I would be so strict to myself, and make myself suffer. I also tend to work too hard on my romantic relationship. I am a girlfriend to an amazing man, and I always want to be the perfect girlfriend. I force myself to be nice, kind, and pretty all the time, to cook a lot for him, to help him with his work, etc., and tend to wore myself out. But I can't do that permanently, and so, I sometimes "fail," which leads to self-hate. And when I feel depressed, both of us are unhappy.

So, the point I am making here is: being hardworking is good, but when you start to work hard too much, and work too hard, you start to suffocate yourself, and that's when things become problematic.

This semester, I am taking a class called "Japanese Thoughts and Religion," and in this class, we are learning about Buddhism, especially Zen. The semester just started this month, and we've had only 2 classes so far since the beginning of this semester, so I still have so much more to learn obviously, even though I have already learned new things. I hope I can share more by the time the semester ends in July!

In the last class, we briefly learned about Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha, "the awakened one"), and his life. He was born in a royal family. After he was born, a holy man prophesied that he would either become a great king or a great monk. His father wanted his son to be a king just like himself, and decided that he would provide anything to keep his son in the palace. He thought, if his son is satisfied with his life in the palace, he would not be interested in the world outside of the palace (= the real world where people need to experience suffering sometimes, if not all the time).

But as you've probably guessed, he couldn't cover up the truth like that forever. Siddhartha Gautama became interested in what and how would the world outside of the palace be like, and one day, he got a chance to get out of the palace, and see the real world for himself. Of course, he was shocked to see how the real world looked like. He had never suffered; everything in the palace was so beautiful. Everyone in the palace was young, healthy, and beautiful. He encountered old people, ill people, and also dead people for the first time in his life. He returned to the palace, but his life in the palace wasn't the same anymore. He decided to leave the palace to go on a journey to find the truth, and did so when he was 29, leaving his duty as the price, and the future king, his wife, and his new born child behind.

This is the story that I heard in the class (I heard the same story in another class that I took last year.) of the life of Siddhartha Gautama before he started his journey to the enlightenment. And from that time, it took 6 years for him to achieve the enlightenment (= nirvana). First, he tried to achieve the enlightenment (= to be released from suffering, because according to him, life is suffering) through tough training which made him suffer physically, such as starving himself for days. But it didn't bring him any good outcome, and he wasn't satisfied. It didn't work. And one day, he realized that he didn't have to choose the extreme way; he could choose the middle way. I had to go through this part rather quickly and briefly because I do not know much in details yet... Sorry.

Too less is not good, too much is not good either. The moderate amount is always good. And this principle applies to everything. I know this principle, and I understand what this principle means. But for me, it's not so easy to practice it in my everyday life. If I wish to release myself from suffering (because I am suffering from doing too much!), however, I need to practice it, and learn to balance myself. It took Buddha 6 years to learn that it's all about the balance, and I'm wondering how many years it'll take for me to learn that. Definitely more than 6 years! lol

I hope you enjoyed the little story about Buddha. Try not to push yourself too much! Keep in mind: a good moderation is the key! See you in my next post!

Excuse My Complaining! :P

Hello! I hope you all are doing well! I just got back to school this week, and so far, all the classes I am taking this semester seem exciting and interesting! I do see that I am going to be very busy with schoolwork, but it's going to be so much fun, and I'm happy to think that I'll have learned lots of things at the end of this semester. 

Ugh, but it sucks that I will definitely have to miss some classes because of the notorious job hunting! I see a major contradiction here. We're students, right? As students, our first priority should be school, classes, and studying. Why do we have to miss a class to be at a particular place at a particular time for a job interview? This is so strange. If all companies do job interviews on weekends, that really helps! But most companies don't... Well, you can tell the interviewer (the company you're applying for) that you won't be able to come because you have a class, but the company would simply reply, "Oh, we're sorry, but we need you to come here like any other candidates." *sigh* In my opinion, students and companies should be equal. Job hunting should not be just about us students seeking opportunities. It should also be about companies seeking good human resources. Job hunting should not be just about us students go meet companies, and plead. "Pick me! Pick me!" It should also be about companies approaching students they want. "Pick us! Please join our company!" 

So, all the companies out there! If you really care about students (aka your future or potential candidates), you'd better be more flexible! Your job interview dates should be negotiable! Let students be students, and let students do what students are supposed to do while they're students. What's normal isn't always the best, and by the same token, what many people do isn't always the right thing to do. I mean seriously, missing even one class really hurts. Professors and lecturers understand that students have this issue, and many of them kindly excuse our absences when we have to miss their classes because of job-hunting related events. So, we may not lose our attendance points. BUT. You cannot listen to the lecture if you don't show up. And I don't like that. I would always want to listen to lectures directly by myself, and take notes directly from what I heard in lectures. That's the point of lectures and schools in general in the first place, isn't it? What's the point of showing up to lectures and school if you can just pass the class by getting copies of your friends' notes? I go to classes because I want to learn. I want to listen to what lecturers are saying, and interpret what they are saying by myself. Borrowing my friends' notes isn't the same as listening to lectures myself. 

Alright, so... since this post came to be about complaining, let me complain about one more thing. lol Some students just cannot shut their mouths even during classes! This phenomenon tends to happen more frequently in large classes. And those who do not keep their mouths shut tend to sit not near, but far from the lecturer. Well, first of all, how disrespectful! They're being so rude to the person who's speaking. I mean, how would you feel if people are paying no attention or whatsoever to you, and talking with each other about things that are completely unrelated to what you're talking about when you're standing in front of the class doing a presentation? That's not very comfortable, isn't it? Then why do you dare to do that to other people? Please think. PLEASE. 

Moreover, those noisy people are violating other people's right to listen to the lecture. You may think you and your friend(s) are more like whispering to each other than talking. But in almost all cases, you're not the only ones who are doing that, and believing the same damn thing. Students who are actually listening to the lecture feel noisiness behind them because there are lots of whispering going on simultaneously. And we who take classes seriously really dislike those disrespects to classes, lecturers, and learning. A classroom should be a sacred place devoted for learning and motivation to learning. It should not be violated by those noisy, immature students. 

We're collage students; we're all at least 18 years old or older (because you can't skip grades in Japan). And lecturers still have to ask the class to be quiet. They should be ashamed of themselves. And really, nobody's asking you to participate. You can decide by yourself and for yourself whether you want to be in the classroom or not. So, if you want to keep talking with your friends, just leave. Go elsewhere. Go to the cafeteria. And talk as much as you want. I mean, you're so uncool because you aren't cool enough to work hard on your schoolwork, and you don't have the guts to not showing up to classes at all either. So, make up your minds, please! I'm tired of having to be irritated by this problem. Don't be an adult who really is just a baby with a body of an adult. 

Can't We Have Peace?

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I last uploaded a post. To be honest, I haven't been able to have time to sit down alone in front of my laptop to write a post because I had been with people a lot this week. My sister visited me, and stayed at my place this week, which was so much fun, and also, I was at my boyfriend's place for the past few days. It's been a while since last time when I was at my house alone actually!

Oh, by the way, it's the cherry blossom season again in Japan! This spring, it came a little late that usual, but I was lucky enough to have a full day to walk around, and see those beautiful pink flowers since the school hasn't started yet. It actually started today, but I don't have any class on Fridays this semester, so basically, I am going back to school from Monday next week! I am so excited about my new classes because I am mostly taking the ones that I really don't have to. I am almost done with all my required classes for my major, which means that I can take extra classes because I have more time than previous years, when I had to spend my time taking required classes. I am so hyped up!

Ok, so this time, I am going to talk about a sad thing that happened recently. And I am so sad that I have to talk about this. Because... seriously, when we can say that we have a peaceful world? We human beings have had two major wars. But sadly, it seems like those aren't enough for us to really learn that we shouldn't rely on violence anymore. I feel like people want peace, but not many people actually believe that we can really achieve that with everyone working together. People want peace, but they think that's too difficult and complicated. Or maybe they think there's no such thing as peace. They may think that they want to have faith in people and people's good will, but too many times their hope has been betrayed.

I was watching a news program the other day, and when I heard this, I was speechless... because I was so shocked to hear the news. Japanese government said that it would not participate in the negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapon. I will link an article from The Japan Times, so that you can read it. I was shocked because Japan should be willing to talk about this. Japan is the only country that have suffered from attacks using nuclear weapons. We should be the first country to raise our hands, and say, "Hey, we should work together to make a better world." I see that Japanese government is making a political move. They stepped out of the negotiations because Japan is "under the U.S. nuclear umbrella," as it says on the article from The Japan Times. Japan can't really say the world doesn't need nuclear weapons, huh? This is really frustrating. I think those people who actually was there in 1945, and experience all the damage and sorrow brought by nuclear weapons are also frustrated.

I know we can't just say, "Alright, so all kinds of nuclear weapons are banned from tomorrow, so let's just dump all the things we have now." We need a steady plan, and follow it step by step. But rather just trying to find a way to achieve the world without any nuclear threat, Japan just simply stepped out. Easy as it is.

I mean... what are we doing?! Is this the peace we want? Maybe it's the peace we deserve. "Haha! We have this deadly weapon here! You see that? You know what? This one can be really bad! You don't wanna see me fire this, do you? No, you don't. And we don't wanna do that either. Alright, so we don't fight." So we live in a peaceful world where people still need to fear somebody may fire nuclear weapons someday. Is this peace? Are we happy?

I feel like this is the same as gun control. People always say, "But what if...?" "But how would you protect yourself and your family when things happened?" So, maybe we want to, but apparently, we don't believe in the theory of innate goodness of human beings. We have been living on the peace based upon the idea that we human beings are fundamentally and inherently evil.

Well, living in Japan is easy in terms of not having to live with fear of civil wars or bombings from foreign countries. But in many places around the world, people have to and forced to live with fear. I see innocent people getting injured, being killed, crying, and suffering on the television, and it hurts to watch those pictures. I can't stop myself from crying. I want to switch to different channels, but I always don't because for those people, that's the reality they cannot escape from. And then I get angry at myself for enjoying this ordinary life. And... our leader announced that they were refraining from talking about the treaty to ban nuclear weapons? I am so ashamed.

The world free of nuclear weapons might sound crazy in this world with nuclear weapons. But you can't make things come true if don't believe you can. I don't have any kids yet, but when I do in the future, I want to tell them people can have a peaceful world with confidence. I don't want to feel like I'm lying to them. I don't want to tell them we can't have a peaceful world because we're all too scared. I don't want to tell them it's better to be armed than to have faith in humanity.

I know this is a complicated, difficult issue. But we all want peace. It's simple; we all want peace. Can't we have it?

Reference:

• A treaty to ban nuclear weapons. (2017, April 1). Retrieved April 7, 2017, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/04/01/editorials/treaty-ban-nuclear-weapons/#.WOd5zoiGNPY 

Business for Punks!!!!! (A Book Written by a BrewDog Founder!)

Hi! This time, I want to introduce a book that I have recently finished reading. I mentioned the book in my earlier post, but at that time, I could not fully talk about it because I hadn't finished it at that time. But now I have! Yes! For a non-native speaker of English, it is actually an accomplishment to be able to say that I have read a whole book written entirely in English. And it's not a skinny book for beginners, you know? There's nothing wrong with skinny books for beginners and people who read those kinds of books, by the way! But finishing an English book which is read not by English learners like me, but also native (and mature) English speakers is making me feel so good about myself.

Ok, now let's move on to really talk about the book... The book is called, "Business for Punks," and it also has a subtitle which says, "Break All the Rules - The BrewDog Way." The author of this book is James Watt, and he is a co-founder of BrewDog. And yes, BrewDog is a brewery, and it was found in Scotland in 2007.

Now, let me talk about how I came to pick up this book in the school library. In order to get to this, I should first talk about how I was introduced to BrewDog and their one of their products. It was on Christmas Day last year that I tried Punk IPA for the first time ever. Before that, I had never heard of the company or their products, to be honest, which now I think was a total shame. My boyfriend and I went into a so-called "British pub" which was newly opened in his neighbour. We both love drinking, so you know, a new place to have drinks, and we needed to check that out. So, we went there, and on the menu, I found a beer called Punk IPA, and it really dragged my attention. It looked like it had a cool label on it, I am a beer lover, and I love punk in the first place. I love punk music, and punk spirit in general. So, it was natural that I ordered it, and gave it a shot. I have made lots of mistakes in my life, but sometimes, surely, I do make great choices. I didn't have lots of information about the beer; I didn't know about the company, and I had not idea how the beer would taste like. But oh my gosh, it was delicious!!! I had not had a beer which had a taste like Punk IPA! It was very hoppy, and... just so good! (I am so sorry, I am really bad at describing tastes...) I knew that I would come back to the store for that beer from the moment that I had the first sip. It was that good! I looked up "BrewDog" on Google, and found some information about the revolutionary brewery. You won't be bothered to look up online to gather some information about the product you just happned to encounter, or the company whose making it, unless you're interested in them so much, right? So... yeah, that was how I came to know BrewDog and Punk IPA.

Then, how did I find the book? To be honest, that was nothing but a coincidence. As I entered the school library on the third of February (I know the exact date because I tweeted a photo of the book on the day I encountered it. lol), I caught something blue, which seemed to me was similar to the shade of the label of Punk IPA, in the corner of my eye at the bookshelf next to the entrance. I looked back. And it was actually a book written by a co-founder of BrewDog! I don't know why this happened, though. I mean, why would I know why it happened?! lol I didn't know James had written a book on his business philosophy, and the school library does not know about me, and what I'm interested in obviously! But thank... Umm, I don't know whom I should be thankful for... lol But uh... thank you, whoever up there, and have a control over destiny or whatever you call it for letting me discover this book!

Alright, so if you think my personal anecdote is so boring, I have a good news for you! All the rumbling is finally over, and now it's time to go over the core messages which James is telling to the readers. I can't just go one by one, of course, so I'll do what I can do to introduce (only) a few of the essence of his words of wisdom.

First, he teaches us that we shouldn't be starting a new business. Instead, we should start a revolution, or "crusade" in his word. It's about your passion, mission, and how you want to make a change in this world, rather than creating a mean to get profits, and earn money.

"Businesses fail. Businesses die. Businesses fade into oblivion. 

 Revolution never die.

 So start a revolution, not a business."

I am not a specialist in business, nor do I have a plan to start a new business, but I can't agree with this enough. Some people say they want to start a business, own a company, and so on. Ok, I get it... if you're like 5 years old. But they're actually much older than that. They want their companies, but they have no idea or mission. I have been pointing out that that is not how it works, and how you start a project, but now I can verify what I am saying even more because of, and thanks to this book.

Second, James talks also about the importance of founding your brand, and creating your fandom (i.e., marketing). When you buy a product, it's not just about the product, right? The image of the brand that makes the product always follows. You buy a product not because it has a good quality, but also you support that brand. People love brands that they feel they can relate to, and people love brands that are engaging, and willing to be open, and close to them. If a company has a clear, straight passion, mission, and philosophy, they will build fandom. And fans want to support the company and the brand. They will proudly buy, and use the companies products, talk about them online, which is a good way of spreading your brand and products without having to pay a lot of money. If you have a clear vision, good product, and a well-established brand, each fan of you will automatically be ambassadors.

"By engaging and connecting with consumers, you can recruit them to your crusade. By properly laying the foundations, they become actively complicit in your mission, and in turn help you succeed." 

"Customers want to buy into a business that they can believe in; they want to buy from a business that bleeds, loves and laughs in the same way they do and that stands for the same things to boot."

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I love wearing makeup. And I feel like I see many cosmetics brands are following this rule. Customers are fans for each brand. They are not just looking for good mascaras, brow products, etc. They want products that have that logo they love on them. They don't just trust the products; they also trust the brand. And when a brand launches a new product, the loyal fans are waiting, and craving to get one. Ok, so I just wrote about cosmetics industry, but you can do (or should be doing, I should say!) the same thing in every business.

And lastly, James tells us that if you're ever thinking of starting a business on your own, you need to be goddamn strong. And this means you need to take risks, be selfish, and be unreasonable sometimes to protect your mission and passion.

"On many occasions you are going to have to be ruthless, brutal, cold-blooded and cynical. This is OK. As long as it is done for the long-term good of what you are trying to achieve." 

"I love ignoring advice as much as every stupid muppet loves giving it to me. My advice, to those seeking advice, is don't even bother. Advice is for freaks and clowns. The thing about being driven is you need to know your own way." 

James says that everything you do needs to be motivated, and backed up by your mission. People will come up, and try to give you advice. But they don't know share the same passion and mission as you do, they don't really care about your company, and they're not going to take any responsibility if something (bad) happened to your company because you followed that piece of advice. But you care about your company because your life depends on it, you are going to have to take responsibility for anything that happens to your company, and you have the passion and mission. So, you should go, and do whatever what you believe in. Never try to please everyone. Stick to your mission, have faith, and work hard. That's what James is saying.

Alright! I won't give away too much information about what is written in the book, so if you want to find out more, you need to go get that book yourself. I actually want to say more to be honest, though! lol But before I start leaking more information, I probably finish this post. I really, truly enjoyed this book. My heart was pounding when I was reading this book! For real. My inner... uh, no, I think I am openly punk... Whatever. My punk spirit was very satisfied. And guess what? This book made me love BrewDog even more! I am being loyal, and I am actually writing about the company and their product on the Internet, so this is marketing too, right? lol

Ok, thank you for reading, guys! I hope I see you in my next post!

Being Busy Is Overrated!

Hi, thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a great day, or if you're about to end your day, I hope you had a good one.

So this time, let me start with a question: do you like doing nothing? Me? I totally LOVE spending time doing nothing. I could just not leave my house all day, and do nothing all day long. Why am I asking this question? Because I feel like so many people are obsessed with being busy nowadays. They treat having nothing to do like it's a luxury for idlers. And I'm here today to tell them the importance of having time to do nothing, if you want to be creative. Creative spirits don't give a damn about your schedule, and how busy you are. Creative spirits do not come from busy minds. When you're too busy catching up on your daily hustle and your schedule, you won't have time for going forward, and going beyond. When you're too busy to take time for creativity, you can't expect any growth. I'm here to say, "Don't just say, 'Oh, I wish I could afford that time.' Make time for creativity and spiritual growth. Don't just live for your tasks."

"Wow, that's great! But... I'm too busy." Come, on! That's so lame. You can be busy, but don't let your busy-ness dominate and dictate your life all the time. I guess so many people love being busy because being busy make you look more relevant to society. Being busy makes you look like you're needed, and thus makes you look worthier. I sometimes feel like social media are exhibitions of how relevant people are to society. If you're a busy person, and you're agenda notebook is filled with memos of your schedule, you are likely to meet different people many times. You have many friends because people love you, and need you. You take lots of pictures with different people, and post them online. And your pictures get lots of likes, which makes you really satisfied. Me? I don't have lots of friends, and I don't go out that much. I do sometimes, though. So it's easy to guess that I don't post pictures of me with people, which is correct. And I don't have many followers, which means that I don't get lots of likes. I think I've never got more than 30 likes on Instagram to be honest. My sister even felt pity for me because of this! lol But that's ok because I don't care about how many likes I get. I don't care about how "popular" I am, or how important I am to society or whatever. I am just fine even if society don't think I'm important. I am just a small existence, and I am not born with any mission or task for society. I do whatever I want to do, and if people thank me or appreciate me along the way, that will be awesome.

I think people love being busy also for this reason: they feel like they're being productive. They live a productive life. But I doubt that. Is being so busy that you don't even have time to sit down with yourself, and have a little conversation with yourself, productive? I hate being too busy with my job and tasks for this reason. Jobs and tasks make me feel like I'm being productive when I'm really not. And at the end of day, I'll be too exhausted to have time for myself. I can only think about going to bed as early as possible to be ready for the next day. Daily hustle and responsive jobs. Creative spirits don't get along with them. I worked at a busy convenience store this spring vacation, and the work I did there was definitely a responsive job. I didn't create or add anything new. I was just there for customers, and answered there needs. There were so-called manuals for each task, and all I needed to do was to follow them carefully. It's not just about the work in a convenience store. Think about answering e-mails. That's responsive too. You can be so busy replying to all those e-mails you've got. You'd feel you're being busy and productive. But are you really producing anything? Treating customers, answering e-mails, solving problems, schoolwork, etc. These are all responsive tasks. I'm not saying these jobs are worthless. And you can't leave them all behind; you've got to do what you've got to do. But what is important is that you should make sure you should take time for things other than responsive jobs. You can use that time to add something new to your job, create a whole new thing from scratch, etc. I feel like so many people are busy catching up with their tasks and thing they've got to do, and neglect catching up with themselves.

I have been writing a long essay about my life and thoughts recently. Well, I am the one who's typing the keyboard, but I let my creative spirits and spontaneousness moves my fingers. I write whatever comes up on my mind, and worry about the structure later. And it's a very fun activity for me to do. I don't have any assigned theme or anything, I don't have any deadline. Just me and a blank, white space. Well, talking about me and a blank, white space, this blog, too, is my way of spending time with myself, and being creative without any task or mission. But taking time for creativity isn't enough because creativity doesn't like schedules and deadlines. He loves showing up when he wants. Being creative isn't just for people doing creative jobs. We all can be creative. What is important is that we all have this mindset that we let our spirits and thoughts float freely. I get good ideas or lines for my essay or this blog when I'm not working on them. When I'm taking a bath, when I'm just taking a walk, when I'm feeling comfortable in my bed, etc. Creative spirits come to me when I'm not expecting.

Don't just live for your tasks. The true value of life is outside of tasks. If you're too busy taking time for doing nothing, talk to your agenda notebook, and still take time for doing nothing. You're good at dealing with your schedule, you busy people, right? lol Be idlers sometimes, even if you're busy. I believe many successful people know this. Their schedules are hectic. They are busy, but they don't have busy minds 24/7. They have been successful because they have taken time and mind space for new things (i.e., thing other than responsive jobs). Be creative and artistic at heart, even if you're not an artist. Liberate yourself from tasks and deadlines. Have a conversation with your creativity spirits and spontaneousness, and make friends with them. They will surprise you. Tasks and daily hustle don't make your life rich in the end. Do nothing sometimes. Value doing nothing because it's so underrated these days. Being busy isn't something you should be proud of or something you can boast around.