RedSamurai

Found an old picture (my mum did) of me getting my degree at the Royal Albert Hall.

At the time thats where London University had its ceremony.

A few years later I would be in 🇯🇵, and not return for 16 years.

If I could only whisper in that young lads ear 🤫

Making Chilli Con Carne today - had an urge for it.

yes agree, was being ironic.

So I watch a bunch of scientists, PhDs even Nobel laureates on youtube.

And at the end of their videos on…quantum whatever, they all say “hey why not go to my merch store and buy a T-shirt?”

Great, so now I need a phd to sell t-shirts?

It’s fine, in real life we always try to accommodate each other, as we should👍

ok will do

Ah understood, yes, sorted some paperwork here in Taiwan first. Thx.

Yeah, no paperwork needed for me I think, as a permanent resident.

Looking forward to being back in Tokyo soon, after 6 months away.

I guess based on your income and if you have a non working spouse you will pay for them too

I don’t take income in Japan anymore but I pay ¥8,000 yen per month for health now.

In Taiwan I today registered for local health and I don’t take income here and so costs £20 pm.

Even with no income in Japan it’s around ¥8,000 per month per person - you would be sent a bill. In Taiwan around ¥4,000, in UK zero.

👍 Agree. Creative comfort food is haute cuisine.

Applied for my national health card here in Taiwan today. Compulsory after 6months as resident

🇹🇼Costs about £20 per month
🇯🇵Japan about double that(ow!)
🇬🇧Uk obviously free

Heath service in 🇹🇼 is excellent btw. Often rated best in world. Same day treatment

Spent life trying not to get pigeon-holed.

Sales, Marketing, Delivery, Finance, Accounting, HR, Legal, Support, Development, Corporate - managed 'em all.

Defense, Manufacturing, Finance - worked in 'em all.

🇬🇧, 🇯🇵, 🇭🇰, 🇹🇼 lived in 'em all.

And now I know nothing - success!😉

Half asleep, looking for reassurance in all the wrong places…

😆Once in Japan I accidentally brought a Cicada in with my washing and had hug it up in the wardrobe somewhere. Noisy fckr.

To late and too lazy to deal so I just turned the cooler up to sub-arctic.

Soon silent. He wound down like an old clock🤣

Watching Elon talk about technical engineering is great

Watching him talk about social engineering vomit-inducing

But I always feel that the unpopular, awkward, kid, who found he could only make social connections by exaggerating, has become addicted to folks going "Wow"🪽🚗

Here in Taiwan, I find people are more likely to try to talk over each other. Something I find very rude.

It offends my British and Japanese sensibilities😉

Though if I watch politicians & reporters on the news in the UK & US, they are much worst. Just talk past each other.

two men are standing next to each other in a dark room . one of the men is wearing a white tank top . ALT: two men are standing next to each other in a dark room . one of the men is wearing a white tank top .

Oh I wish.

Just panels of 3 or 4 folks, with a moderator, debating quantitative finance etc.

I think I was on the HFT (High Frequency Trading) one, which had a bit of a buzz at that time, when Michael Lewis's Flash Boys was making the rounds.

I participated in, as far as I know, the one and only "Battle of the Quants" in Tokyo, so many years ago

I remember after the event we had a party at (the then new) Tokyo Midtown, and they tried to flog a bunch of apartments to us participants

Memory just came back to me

6am Sunday morning in Taipei, and it’s off to the races.

And by races, I mean life.

A few years ago I was honoured to be invited to the funeral of the head of Okasan Securities in🇯🇵

Ceremonies on at Zojoji temple for at least 2 days

Hundreds of us ushered through every hour, so must have been thousands over the time

Sadly may have another coming up here soon

Good morning from Taipei everyone.

It's 5am on Saturday 1st Nov here, so still totally dark, but time for me to get moving.

No rest for the wicked apparently 😉

There is no AI I can find that can successfully complete this simple task.

Seems trillions of dollars don't buy what they used to.

“Draw 5 concentric circles and put 1 word in each circle. The words are : Sot, dot, explore, insights, vitruvian”

Ominous skies…

Once gave a presentation to a bunch of Japanese vendors, on behalf of an investment bank, and more than half the audience turned their chairs around and faced away in protest.

I was forcing them to confront some hard truths.

Anyway - after travail, I prevail - and they were no more...

However, it is obviously normal in office space everywhere

One thing that makes my heart sink in Japan, is when I walk into an office, and the managers have build their individual offices around the window perimeter, and the staff are herded into the center like sheep

Bad sign

Seen it living in Taipei and Hong Kong, but not in Tokyo or London

When folks move, they always rebuild individual apartments, rearranging walls and doors. So constant sounds of building works😡

Also from what I have seen, these redesigns are often ugly and use light poorly

I admit, one thing that often staggers me is how some folks seem unengaged with their surroundings

When I go somewhere I want to try/see everything, yes some may be uninspiring, but I try at least once

Some folks seem to go somewhere, then just engage the minimum to get by🤷‍♂️

With Diane Keaton passing, I ended up wistfully looking back at the cast of the Godfather - an exquisite classic

Almost all of them gone now, many gone decades ago, and some sadly gone younger than me (John Cazale etc.)

Pacino and Duvall around, but..well..how the world turns