Tokyo Ueno Station and time as a flat circle

I’ve continued to struggle with what to do with this blog, picturing it as a way to talk as an authority on something. Of course, I’m thinking about this through the lens of the very flashy folks performing huge talks and nurturing a large following. Personally, I’m not confident that I’m an expert on anything in a way that I could contribute to some sort of discourse although that’s probably equal parts lack-of-confidence and still-learning. Reaching that crossroads, I decided it didn’t matter much to allow this to simply languish while I just worked and worked. As of late, I had shifted gears at work. Previously, my entire focus was support. It was a little less on the ticketing end, more focusing on complex issues, training team members on networking and network-related products. As of the beginning of October, I’ve stepped into a bit more of an operations role. Under the banner of “CloudOps Administrator”, I’ve begun really tracking alerting, managing systems across a humongous global fleet. As part of this shift, I’m not really writing to people, sometimes writing some technical documentation. This sparked a bit of something inside of me where I needed to find a way to keep the mental gears turning. There’s likely a smarter way to use this. Like some sort of recipe, I can just put in a pinch of personality along with a heavy helping of whatever else I’m working on, even if that’s just reading, listening, or viewing. I’m hardly a critic but there’s probably something I can write about things to share a bit more with the world at large. Whatever this turns into with time, we’ll see. It might continue being delivered weekly and become something formidable although it might be absolutely nothing, a site that slips into the abyss. In any case, here it is. I’ll try to follow up on this a bit more although we’ll have to figure out if it works.

It’s been overwhelming for everyone throughout the year, having to come to grips with a huge lifestyle shift. As part of my wife’s career change, we’ve relocated to Portland, Oregon which is a lovely area. The downside is that we only made it two weeks before everything locked down, failing to get our feelers out there. In turn, we’ve been relegated to a single apartment while we try to figure out how to survive. I know it’s easier than things that either of our parents have weathered so it makes me feel grateful although it’s still emotionally taxing to think about school, work, and life during this period of time. If you read this, I want to impress upon you how fucking important it is to take care of yourself through this time. Sometimes, that means getting a nap in the middle of the day. Other times, that’ll be forcing yourself to work on stretches, yoga, or running. Putting the right foot forward can be a real pain in the ass. I’m hardly a “self-help guru” although I know that sometimes it can be helpful to know that others are struggling too. In the words of Nine Inch Nails, “you and me, we’re in this together now.” I’m not sure that was the higher meaning of that song but it’ll work in this case.

Recommendation

As a bit of parting, I’ll share a recommendation, something I’ve enjoyed recently and think that you, whoever that may be, would find interesting. Tokyo Ueno Station. This is a fairly short novel, clocking in at 180 pages and can easily be read (or listened, should you prefer the audiobook) in a single sitting. The story follows a character named Kazu as it follows from his birth to his death, struggling with immense grief that doesn’t let him leave Tokyo’s Ueno Park. It’s a clever discussion about things that are explicitly Japanese while still relaying it in a way that just makes sense globally.

In parting, I’m going to leave you with a video that I don’t really understand from one of the legions of mascots out of the Japan…