The Commuter

We will absolutely need a car for life in California, as much as I would love to avoid the expense, hassle, and environmental knock-ons. We looked at prices on both sides of the border, and while it was a little more expensive to buy in Canada due to taxes, the added convenience of having a ride from day-one was worth it.

Don't have kids?

I've read a couple on-line arguments about whether to have children or not; how the decision affects one's quality of life and whether or not there are moral implications to the decision.

Some felt children cause an undesirable revolution in one's entire lifestyle; others felt a life without children was shallow and unfulfilling. The most interesting part of the discussion, I felt, was the observation that people (couples) who had decided not to have children often felt they were somehow judged to be "selfish" for their decision, and countered that what was really selfish was insisting on bringing a bunch of new "mini-me"s into an already overcrowded world. What was interesting was I somehow agreed that there was some part of being electively childless that felt selfish, but couldn't immediately put my finger on why.

My choice is obvious. I have a daughter, and couldn't imagine a life without my family. However, I think if you really feel you don't want children, you shouldn't have some just to satisfy some reactionary outside pressure to conform; that's not doing anyone long-term good. So why then do I feel there's something "off" about couples choosing to be childless?

"Selfish" means making or taking advantage for one's own benefit. If anything, those who insist on making mini copies of themselves to have run about the world could be considered "selfish". Childless couples on the other hand are "self-centred": principally considering one's own point of view. They seek to avoid the sacrifice to their lifestyle involved in having kids.

Society is primarily defined as a network of responsibilities owed to one another that knits us together and makes us stronger as a group than as individuals. And responsibility is primarily a matter of sacrificing our individual desires to ensure our responsibility is met.

We begin this process from birth, where our most immediate need is immediately translated into a responsibility for someone else to satisfy -- our consciousness is only capable of comprehending and expressing our own self-need. As we grow older, we learn about sharing (suppressing our need for acquisition and ownership for the benefit of others), chores (suppressing our free playtime for necessary duties), discipline (suppressing immediate gratification for delayed gratification), work (exchange time in unrewarding tasks for money) etc. We learn about family (before our selves), make friends (before our family), have girlfriends (before our friends), get married (one mate before all others), raise kids (before our mate) and so on. Our entire lives are spent learning how to strip a piece of our soul and use it as mortar for the future of our shared society. And when children grow up, they will take the foundation we left them, and start the cycle over again.

In the end, this is what people instinctively react to: electively childless couples have decided contribute to and enjoy the benefits of present society, but have abstained from helping build our common future. They are not dedicating the next 20 years of their life energy making sure the next generation is healthy and well adjusted; they're dissipating it for their own benefit.

I can guarantee you, no one looks at a childless couple who invents the cure for cancer as "selfish". No one thinks the childless couple who volunteers to teach children in Africa are "selfish". But maybe, just maybe, if you're a hipster spending your dual income on lattes, studio apartments, and purse-sized "dogs", someone might look down their nose at you when they stayed awake all night wiping the snot from a sick child's nose. And I don't think the genetic origination of said child matters; only that the child represents the next generation of our society.

ラナ子 Forever

スミコはどこから
やってきたのでしょう
スミコ、スミコ
welcome、ん～、スミコ
あなたの心の
遠い思い出から
スミコはやってくるのです
スミコはどこかに
帰るのでしょうか
スミコ、スミコ
goodbye、お～、スミコ
あなたの心の
あたたかい場所で
スミコはいつもいっしょです
大人はみんな、こわい顔
それでいてみんな、さみしそう
でもね、忘れないで
笑顔あふれたあのころを
なつかしくて
あたたかで
スミコはとてもかわいい子
スミコ、スミコ
できることなら
いつまでも
スミコ、スミコ
forever、スミコ
スミコは時々
見えなくなります
スミコ、スミコ
come back、お～、スミコ
あなたの心が
汚れたときに
スミコは見なくなるのです
大人になれば
辛いこと
悲しいことが
あるでしょね
でもね、いつでも戻れる
やさしかった、あのころに
なつかしくて
あたたかで
スミコはとてもかわい子
スミコ、スミコ
できることなら
いつまでも
スミコ、スミコ
forever、スミコ

Suomipop

Memories of Winter

Happy Birthday L.

This should have been posted yesterday, but I spent all of yesterday playing with L. Her party is booked tomorrow with cake and everything.



Try to ignore the fool behind the camera.

The Next Chapter

While I was at 3Di I had the pleasure of working with many real and potential partner companies from across the globe. Many times I succeeded only in embarrassing myself professionally; but I always tried to hold true to a sense of professional competence, ethics, and behaviour that stood for the kind of person I want to be. Not unselfishly, I hoped to be seen as a stand out guy, even if only to serve my own conceited self image.

Part of my professional ethic is that companies, as abstract entities, with no more life than that which the whim of its investors endow it, deserve no great respect or loyalty in and of themselves. Companies demand obedience, whether it be to laws or directives from superiors; but it's people that deserve respect and loyalty. And many times it's people outside your company, who's respect you've cultivated and earned, who go furthest in helping you accomplish your goals.

I hope that doesn't sound too shocking, because superficially it appears to be a contradictory to the notions of belonging and identity that most people hold. However if you look closer you might find merely a different definition of the same.

The purpose for someone like me to join a company, it's never about getting rich, it's always about creating something larger that yourself. Money is just a means to play the game, not the game in and of itself. On the other hand, for many people, joining a company is about keeping your head down so you can continue to earn a wage to fund whatever it is you'd rather be doing. People like that aren't going to join you in building new things.

I am happy to say that the result of my connections was several strong relationships with people from many different companies, industries, and backgrounds. Some of whom I haven't even ever met in person yet. When I informed those people that I would no longer be able to act as a liaison with 3Di due to my decision to leave, I was impressed with the level of interest in continuing working with me after 3Di. It didn't take very long for someone to offer me a job, but I am somewhat surprised at the quality of opportunity I have been given a shot at.

I have tentatively accept a role as senior engineer with RealXtend, an emerging leader in open 3D virtual worlds, to work with them directly in Oulu Finland. I will likely be involved in working with the open source community, general programming, and helping plot technical direction using the knowledge and insight I've cultivated during my short but eventful career in virtual worlds.

That means picking up the family and heading down to the equivalent of a small town to the north of Edmonton. While Oulu is quite a bit smaller than the some 35M people in the greater Tokyo area, I am actually relishing a chance to leave this mass of humanity behind for a while. I needed a new direction, under leadership that I can respect, and quite frankly, I am impressed beyond words at the professionalism and attitude that realxtend has shown in their work to get me over to Finland. These guys are great guys, and as I said to start out, it's the people there that have earned my respect and loyalty.

Bonus Track

Bonus points if you can tell me where that was shot.

Coming Home

I should have posted this a very long time ago, but I've been rather busy with work and life.

It seems that since I got back from NY in April I've been running around doing something, or just being plain run down. I had my friend Anand in town, and we had a good time about Tokyo. Now Deifante has come, and we'll be off to the Virtual World Conference and Expo here in Tokyo. The reason D. is in town is because we are kicking off a new project that I am ostensibly leading, and D. is contracting to work with us on it.

However, I am now planning to pack up my family and head back to Canada for the first time in over 2 years. It will be L.'s first trip on an airplane, and my family's first time seeing L. in person.

If anyone I know in Calgary would like to meet me or M. or L., please drop me an email, and I will do my best to arrange it. :)

A Tradegy, in 3 Acts.

Fin.

More Cuteness

Video of L. getting her first solid food.

Grand Unified Theory of Parenting

I came up with this nugget a while ago, but I thought I'd dump it from my brain.

You might call it a Unified Theory of Properties All Successful Human Beings Must Have, but thats a bit over-pretentious.

In a person's life there are countless lessons, great and small, that one must learn. Ideally we could just tell each other what they are and be done with it, but unfortunately it seems that people just don't learn from sermons -- they only seem to truly comprehend when they experience the truth of the matter directly.

This poses a dilemma for parents. How do we set our children up for a happy successful life, if they're determined to repeat our mistakes?

My theory is you only need to teach a few basic pillars, and all other lessons follow naturally from those basic premises. They follow in order of importance.

1. The Foundation of All Society: Empathy -- the ability to feel what other living things feel.

Without this pillar, human society, and therefore civilization could not exist.

Having empathy means that you cannot do things to others that you would not do to yourself. This is the Golden Rule, and from the Golden Rule all morality follows.

2. The Foundation of Human Intellect: Curiosity -- the desire to understand the working of the world around you.

Without this pillar, human technology would not have progressed beyond the ability to hunt or gather enough food to just survive, and therefore civilization could not exist.

Having curiosity means that you start by questioning what you observe around you -- how? why? It also means that you must move past the question, and start interacting with your environment in order to begin searching out the answers.

This is Learning, specifically the essence of what we call the Scientific Method. And it is only from science that all objective knowledge can follow. (In the past humans have had pseudo-sciences from which they derived knowledge, but they have all eventually proven to be mistaken.)

3. The Foundation of Human Psychology: Self-Honesty -- the desire to resist the natural human tendency to accept an illusory perception of reality.

The study of adult psychology is essentially founded on the myriad set of biases built into our brain which plague human beings and cause untold misunderstanding. Without a drive to avoid these natural biases, we are constantly mis-interpreting our interactions with the world, especially other human beings, and left confused and hurt as to why we seem to always find ourselves in a position of conflict.

Having self-honesty means more than just a clear perception of bias -- more importantly it leads to a state of mind that finds it difficult, and a waste of time, to be dishonest with others.

Self honest people must naturally lead to all honesty, and honesty is the essence of communication. Honesty is more than just the absence of lies, it is the presence of truth. It means that what you say is an accurate description of your environment, and that will lead people to trust and listen to what you say.

4. The Foundation of Personal Success: Effort -- the desire to continue to face difficulty until it is overcome.

The natural order of life is a continuous process of challenge. We are creatures that resulted from the ego-less life-and-death process of Evolution. There is no cease, just a constant march towards improvement, like slinky walking down an infinite case of stairs. When we accept this process, and not see it as tiring or unfair, we can find the will to continue with our struggles.

Without effort in our actions, most of them would fail immediately, and all success in this world would be a result of mere luck. Every time we pick up after failure, we give ourselves improved odds of succeeding the next time.

...

Starting from only the above lessons, I feel it is possible for any person to naturally directly deduce the entire set of life lessons.

Do you feel anything has been left out?

(Note: religion and dogmatic philosophical interpretations have been intentionally left out, either because I think they are wrong, or they are right, but could be extrapolated from the above. If you disagree, I am happy to hear, and likely challenge, your opinion.)

So sweet it'll make you sick

Lanamania

New Lana Pictures

本当におやばかやなぁ。。。

More pictures

おめでとう

L. was born the morning of Saturday 8th a healthy 3.7kg. This was a little above average for a Japanese baby, so M. had a bit of a struggle with it, but eventually came through and is resting well now.

I was unable to make it in time despite the fact I was racing home from San Francisco. I missed the delivery by a couple hours, but M. expressed thankfulness that I wasn't around to witness what she described as a rather undignified labor process.

The following is the world's only known picture of the starlet.

For L.

I have a garden of my own,
Shining with flowers of every hue;
I loved it dearly while alone,
But I shall love it more with you:
And there the golden bees shall come,
In summer time at break of morn,
And wake us with the busy hum
Around the the Siha's fragrant thorn.

I have a fawn from Aden's land,
On leafy buds and berries nursed;
And you shall feed him from your hand,
Though he may start with fear at first;
And I will lead you where he lies
For shelter in the noon-tide heat;
And you may touch his sleeping eyes,
And feel his little silvery feet.

--

We are all waiting for you, soon.

In a week or so. Probably while I am in Chicago, with my luck.

Coming Soon

L. is looking ready to join the family soon.

It doesn't appear to have a penis

Its the 28th week and M. came back from the doctors appointment. They looked and they peered, they glared and the stared, but try as they might, they were unable to view the groundhog's shadow^w^w baby's man-marker, which means that its quite likely to be a girl.

Which means my psychic baby-gender-predicting powers are true, and everyone else was wrong. :)