3. Inspiring Stories

The Baby Bat

by J

In the back yard of the house, there are different things show up out of no where. Spider web, trash bag, big glass hopper, a piece of plastic that I have no idea what it is for, a big piece of pine tree leaf, and so on…

One day my wife told me there was a bat hanging outside in the morning while I was at work. She said she was so surprised that she forgot to take picture of.

On the next day, while I was watering the back yard, my wife in the house suddenly yelled, “bat!”

I looked at the direction where she was pointing at. It took me some time to recognize the little dark gray creature sticking and crawling on the mosquito net at the door.

I immediately took my cell phone and started filming. Some of you may have seen bat in real life but they are not anything pleasant to look at but I had never seen one so, I was filming as I observed what it does.

I have observed it for some time out of curiosity but at the same time, I was a little scared of the creature. I wanted to go into the house but I was worried that it may fly into the house when I open the mosquito net.

After a while, I realized that the little bat would not go anywhere for some time so I picked a stick to see if it would grab onto it so that I could remove him out of my way. I may have scared the creature, and it has started crawling again on the net. I’ve tried to offer the stick but it just ran away from it.

I looked in the yard and I saw a piece of palm tree leaf with a big dried surface that looked like a scooper. I have grabbed the leaf and glided against the mosquito net so that the little bat would hop onto it or fall onto it.

Bingo! Though unwillingly, it has fell on the leaf. I have hurried to the short bush area of the backyard and placed the leaf on the soil.

The bat has crawled off the leaf, and crawled towards my onion garden. After exploring the area, it has started climbing the wall behind the onion garden.

After climbing the wall to about a foot height, it fell on the ground. It has tried to climb the wall again, and it has climbed to my eye height. Then it has paused and rested for some time but when it started moving again, it slipped and fell on the ground.

I do not know if bat feels pain but it did not move for a moment… but after the moment, it has started climbing the wall again. Then fell again. The little creature has repeated this several times.

I was getting a tired of watching it fall, I went inside the house.

While I was fixing dinner, I still saw the creature on the wall but I saw less movement.

On the next day, I looked out in the backyard, I did not see the bat anymore. I was wondering where it went but after my breakfast, I went out to my onion garden where the bat may have fell again.

After observing the area for some time, I saw the bat hanging upside down at the edge of a plastic pot. I don’t know if I was being too loud or if the sun was too bright but it started moving and hid it’s head under the onion leaf.

Still, I did not think it’s a pleasant creature to look at but I started growing attachment to this little creature… it has round ears that make it look a little like a mouse. It has a sharp little tail. It’s foot have some fingers but hands have a single nail that can be used to hook on the wall…

I did not see what it eats or if it eats anything special but I saw a plenty of leaves and some insects so I thought it can survive just fine in my little onion garden.

I may have been wrong…

When I came back from errands in town, I saw it lying on the onion pot. I did not see it moving… I picked a stick and poked the little bat gently but there was. No response…

I did not know what I should do but I thought maybe it was just dehydrated under the sun so I watered around him but nothing…

I have regretted I should have googled what baby bat feeds on but it was too late. I have removed the body from the pot and placed it on the soil to see if there is any sign of life but I saw none at all. It was already just a little piece of corpse.

I dug a little bit of soil next to the onion garden and buried him. There was nothing else but the his body… I wanted to put something next to his body so that he wouldn’t feel so much loneliness but i could not think of anything he would like.

I wonder… how did he even end up in our backyard? Was he left alone by his parents? Was he a messenger from the great being to me? Anyways, he must have been lonely and scared…

I could have used the technology to search how I could save him but instead, I was using the technology to take video clips of him suffering… too late now but I hope I won’t make the same mistake. Great power comes with great responsibility…

I only wish the onions in my garden has gave him some comfort and cheered him, at least…

Exchange of Life

by J

Some people may find it creepy but this is what seems to happen with our family or maybe to happen to everyone but nobody realizes…

I was born in Kagoshima, in the southern island of Japan. That’s where we get sedimentation of volcanic ashes from Sakurajima volcano once in a while. When it’s falling, it looks like snow but when it accumulates on the ground, it’s dust…

Kagoshima is where my mother is from and her parents were living in a house with a small Japanese garden with a pond. The pond is surrounded by green moss and various flowers. On one side of the pond, there is a waterfall as well.

In the pond there were many Koi fish that my grand parents were raising. Around the pond, there were lizards that just migrated.

Now, what’s interesting is that all the Koi fish died and they were floating their stomach up one day a few weeks before I was born. About a decade later when my brother was born, there were multiple lizards lined up in the garden and they were dead.

I do not know why that happened but maybe a huge energy is required to bear a human baby… and some of those smaller creatures’ life are exchanged for us…

Until We Become the Legend…

by J

We may not have to drive in the future but for now, drive safe

I started driving cars when I was in high school, and since then, I have been driving in different countries. Thanks to many people who have cautioned me various things, I have been fortunate not to be in a serious accident so far, although I have been in near miss accidents a few times.

What is unfortunate is that some of my friends and acquaintances drive or drove very dangerously, and some of them even lost their lives so, I would like to take some time to share the things that I keep reminding myself when I drive.

0. The big lesson

On one rainy day, I was driving on a busy street with road construction. The traffic was moving slow so most of the cars were rushing to go before everyone else but I made sure I have enough room in front of me to stop, in case of an emergency break. Several cars cut the line but I did not care. I yielded for them. The car behind me was obviously eager to go faster, and it was tailgating me and flashing the headlights at me to close the distance in front of me. I knew he was very frustrated how I was driving. I felt pressured and I was tempted to close the space in front of me but the next instance, I saw several cars in front of me stepped on their breaks.

I only expected the traffic to be slowing down but it turned out to be a complete stop!

I stepped further onto my break pedal but I was getting closer and closer to the car in front of me. I thought I would crash. Fortunately, I was able to stop just a few inches behind the car in front of me.

As soon as I felt the relief, I heard a big crash behind me. It was two cars behind crashed into the car behind me.

I was able to stop in time, and so was the car right behind but that was not the case for two cars behind me.

1. Distance, distance, and distance

When there are no cars, people, or any object on the street, you would not get into an accident, unless if you fall asleep, but in reality, there are all sorts of obstacles on the street. On those chaotic streets, what you can control is very limited. In fact, there is only one thing that you can control – your car. On top of that, the only thing that you can control by controlling your car is the space in front of you.

You cannot control the pedestrians. You cannot control the broken tire on the highway. You cannot control the traffic. You cannot control the driver behind you, who is eager to go faster and getting closer to you.

The good news is that the only thing you can control will drastically decrease the chance of getting you into an accident. Of course, many crazy things happen when you are on the wheels so, it is not the 100% protection. However, I feel that too many people do not take care of the only thing that they can take control of.

It is important to pay attention to your surroundings but remember, the space in front of you is your sacred zone. You must secure it at all time, even when you are tailgated!

***By the way, I have been taught to count the seconds from the moment the car in front of me passes a landmark till I pass the same landmark. If I count to three seconds, then that means I am maintaining the optimal distance. The time it takes for cars to stop is relative to how fast we are driving. If you maintain a 3-second distance, you can likely come to a complete stop in time.

2. Pay extra attention when changing lane or turning

When you are going straight, the only thing that you need to take care of is your sacred zone in front of you but things get complicated when you are not going straight. Many accidents happen when cars are changing lane or when making a turn. Do not forget to do all the due diligence.

3. Look at tires

Sometimes, there are cars cuts in all of a sudden…, or you feel like all of a sudden. Especially when you are driving long distance on a highway, you lose concentration, and your reaction time delays. For me, it had been difficult to detect a large truck coming into my lane when it was dark at night, and when it was raining… Someone told me to watch the wheels of the vehicles. Voila!

It is so much easier to detect vehicles changing lanes when you look the wheels.

4. Driving safely is much more important than showing off techniques

The sole purpose of driving on public streets or highways is nothing else but to get to our destination.

Who cares how closely you can drive behind a car and how fast you can react to a stop. It only bother people… Please read below if you are one of those who enjoy practicing or showing off your driving techniques…

5. Stay cool, and yield

To tell you the truth, I used to get road rages. I was so intense and I easily became short tempered when I was driving. When someone was driving slow on a highway, I tail gated. When someone drove faster than me, I speeded to chase the car. When someone told me directions incorrect, or too late, I yelled and made crazy turns. In traffic jam, I made sure I leave no space for other cars to cut in.

I feel very embarrassed how childish I used to drive… but at the same time, I understand how those childish drivers feel when they are driving crazy, and I also understand how difficult it is to control their emotions. I am not expecting that I can change all the raged drivers in the world but I hope this article can help some drivers… or even one driver…

How I was able to start coping with road rages was a shock remedy… In the company in Missouri, where I started working after graduating from the college, there was this quality manager who loved driving his green mustang. Whenever he left the company, we heard his mustang driving away. He was born and grown up in south part of Chicago, in the ghetto area. He was a big white guy with a strict father, who valued courtesy. Despite the education at home, he grew up doing street fights with the gangs. I remember him telling me one time, in his deep voice, “I recognize the smell in the bathroom. Someone is doing pots in there.” Then, the company-wide drug test was carried out, and a few people has been kicked out.

He was divorced but he was still in love with his ex-wife. One day, he told me with a big smile on his face, telling me that he is getting back with his ex-wife. Then he told me the story of the special rings he prepared… I do not remember the details but he melted the original rings to make a new ones, or something… The tough big boss was a romantic guy. That weekend, he took us to a bar in town, then took us on a drive in his mustang. Because he was speeding so much, we were caught by the police, but some how, he was able to talk out of it. Several weeks later, we attended his wedding, and celebrated the happy re-married couple.

Unfortunately, things went south a few months later.

He had been accused of some ethical issue at work, and he was fired. He found a new job but it was three hours away, in Iowa. He started living in Iowa, and came back to Missouri during weekends. He moved back and forth between the states for a few months, then the horrible accident happened.

He must have been texting his wife while driving. His mustang slipped off into the opposite lane, and crashed into an oncoming car, taking lives of two persons, including himself. The worst part is that on the oncoming car, there was a child also, and he lost his mother because of one person’s careless driving.

Since this accident, I started thinking about what it means by responsible driving. I learned that it is not only the matter of myself. I started thinking it is better to yield than causing an accident and make multiple parties suffer. I started thinking how childish it is to get road rage. I started feeling the sense of accomplishment when I managed to control my rage. Then, I realized one thing. No matter how fast I drive, and try to go in front of all the other cars, I cannot even halve the time it takes to get to the destination.

There are a lot more to pay attention to but above are things that I noticed many people value less. I hope less people get into accidents… but who knows, maybe in a few decades, we become the legend… the generation that survived actually driving cars!!! Until then, drive safely.

Lame… but here we go… New Year Resolution

by J

It is time of the year to set the new year resolution!

I know that I will most likely fail on day 3 of the year but I still make it anyways… Why? It is because I just feel like I am getting another chance, and I hope I do better next year. I will not share my resolutions but I will share what I do. Actually, my process is not only coming up with goals but there are other miscellaneous activities around it.

Step 1:

List things I did this year. Happy things, sad things, new things I learned, and so on. This year, I made the list with my wife. One of the things this year was that we moved to a new house but we did not have internet for 3 months!!! My wife went crazy and I took so much effort trying to calm her down, and calling the internet provider for the earliest service… I do not want to go through that again but it was an experience…

Step 2:

Go through my financials… I am not crazy about earning or saving pennies but I just want to make sure I did not spend too much on dumbest junks… like cheap drone that flew only 5 min after charging the battery for hours… (I know some of you have experienced that!) Then, I prepare budget for the next year.

One thing that I have started including in my budget since a few years ago is purchase of the new tech gadgets. When my grandfather was still alive, I was teaching him how to download, edit and save photos that he has taken with his beloved camera. It took forever to teach him!!! In a few decades, I can be left behind technology, and I may become just like my grandfather. The only way to keep up would be to continue learning about it. This is just what I do but my point here would be that it is important to know what matters to you, and put aside some money for those things. During this budget process, if I figure what I want to buy cost more than I anticipated, then I plan how much to cut down other expenses, and/or plan longer term saving.

Step 3:

This is the fun but probably the most difficult part – reviewing your life goals and coming up with next year’s goals. Until last year, I just came up with a list of things I want to do but many failed miserably… like waking up early to have productive mornings…. (yes, I am a type of person who can sleep until afternoon!)

This year, I am still making the list of resolutions but what I am doing differently is adding categorization. By doing so, I was able to think about the bigger goals beyond next year’s resolutions.

In the books that I read in 2021, different goal setting approaches were introduced but many turned out to be very theoretical and not practical for me. I have decided to set the following three categories, and make a list.

The first one is “rice work” resolutions. They are the goals for the job that I have now for paying my bills. Even though I do not like my current job so much, I still need to do better to get paid. The second is “life work” resolutions. They are the goals for my non-paid work or projects that I enjoy doing or that I feel useful for other people. These are the things that define who I am in the future when I retire so it is important for me. The last is give-back resolutions. They are the goals for what I would give back to the society. They are not simply donations but they are the things that I would actively be doing.

Extra Things

I take above steps before the end of the year. Then, the first thing I do on January 1 is checking my fortune for the year. I do not believe in it but usually the new year fortune say all kinds of good things that happens in the year, which makes me feel excited.

By the way, if the fortune says anything bad, I ignore them, and look at the bright side. If you cannot do that and tend to be pessimistic, I strongly suggest you not checking the fortune telling.

I hope my new year resolution steps give you some ideas.

I wish you a happy new year!!!

History of the Universe in 1 year

by J

“The whole universe was in a hot dense state. Then, nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started. Wait…”

That’s the opening theme song of our favorite comedy series, the Big Bang Theory.

I did not care how long this “14 billion years” span of time until someone told me that we are at very close to the New Year countdown if we put the history of the universe into the scale of a year. Then, I started thinking, doing some research, and plotting the timeline on my excel spreadsheet.

Then I realized how little we know about the history, and how ignorant I had been.

I am not going to layout everything but I want you to see some of the key events below:

Years ago…In 1yr scaleEvents
13,800,000,000Jan 1the Big Bang
4,600,000,000Maythe birth of the sun (our solar system)
4,540,000,000the birth of the earth
245,000,000Dec 25appearance of dinosaur on the earth
66,000,000Dec 30Chicxulub impact
(that killed the dinosaur)
800,000appearance of homo sapiens
10,000Dec 31
@23:37		emergence of civilization
(like Mesopotamia and other)
2,000Dec 31
@23:59:55		the birth of Jesus Christ
500Dec 31
@23:59:59		Christopher Columbus voyage
100the World War
15the 1st generation of iPhone
2COVID pandemic

***I just cut and pasted the info from various sources on the internet so it would not be the super accurate info but I think you get the idea… Also, the events that I picked are random without any subtext or whatsoever… The intention here is just to show the scale of the time.

Let’s try a quick arithmetic to apply 1 year scale to this history.

13.8 billion years / 365 days = 37.8 million years

>>> Dec 31 @ 01:00 = it is after the Chicxulub impact but long before the emergence of homo sapiens.

37.8 million years / 24 hours = 1.6 million years

>>> Dec 31 @ 23:00 = … homo sapiens have not appeared yet…

1.6 million years / 60 minutes = 26 thousand years ago

>>> Dec 31 @ 23:59 = … 16 thousand years to go until the beginning of the human civilization…

Dec 31@23:59, that is a minute before the year ends and no human civilization yet!
I did a different calculation and what I got is that Jesus Christ was born 4.6 seconds ago, Christopher Columbus voyaged around the world a second ago, and the World War happened, computer became a household item, internet boosted, and iPhones came out in less than a second!

I think you got the idea of this enormously history of the universe but do not forget that there must have been something else before the Big Bang. I have no idea what is out there but the scale of the timeline just makes me dizzy!

My question is what was going on on Thanksgiving Day or Halloween? On earth, on Mars, or on a planet in a different solar system. Are we really the first civilization on earth? Are we really the only one in the Universe?

I would probably not get the answer to this question in my life time but I enjoy stretching my imagination.

Amazing Compost

by J

Ew… disgusting!

That was my first reaction when I started doing it, and I am sure it is the same case for many people. As for my wife, she encouraged me to do it but she has never touched it…

Why did I even start making compost? Well, it was a half, out of necessity, and the other half, out of curiosity. When corona crisis started in Mexico, people started buying supplies in large lots, and there was a rumor saying that supply of everything will be cut off for a few months. We did not believe in that rumor but we thought maybe we should start growing our food in the yard, just in case…

When we thought of growing our own food, there were two problems. One, we could never take care of plants well, and all the flower pots that we bought in the past died in our house. Two, the access to soil was limited in the house, where we were living.

Because we had never had success with plants, we did not want to buy pretty pots and bags of soil, although I was very much tempted to do so. I have also explored the hydroponic option but it looked very complex. Also, we were renting the place so, I thought a hydroponic system can become a chunk of garbage that I would regret buying when we move in the future.

That led me to propose the option to make our own soil… Just after I said it, I regretted, thinking that it would stink the whole house and there would be complaints from our neighbor. I thought my wife would yell at me for proposing such thing. On the contrary to my concern, my wife was supportive of the idea.

I did not know where to start but I gathered kitchen scraps and put them in an empty tall yoghurt container. My gut feeling told me not to put meat so I gather vegetable and fruit scraps. On a later day, when I did some research about compost making, I found that my gut feeling was right. I should not put meat, fish, or bones in compost as they can draw pests. Some egg shells are good. Egg shells can add calcium to the soil. (Not all the cases, though… it depends on what kind of plants you are growing. Different plants prefer different kind of soil…)

A few days after I started collecting kitchen scraps, the scraps started smelling bad. Since bacteria is doing their magic, I was not sure if I should completely seal it with a lid but, I could not stand it so I put the lid on.

That night, my wife told her mother what we are doing. Surprisingly, her mother is an expert in plants, and she has been making compost on her own, as well. She told us what we need to do is very simple. First, put some soil at the bottom of a container. On top of the soil bed, place kitchen scrap, then place soil on top of compost. Every time we put kitchen scrap, put soil on top. That way, smell is sealed yet the compost can breath.

We had some soil in the pot, which we killed flowers in the past so I took some soil from it, and redid the compost bin. It was, indeed, stinky and disgusting… but after I did what my mother in law told us, things got a lot better!

People, remember this procedure if you are into compost!

Just so you know, I did an experiment later, in which I put kitchen scraps in a completely sealed air-tight container (orange juice plastic bottle). Kitchen scraps made liquid, gas, and odor but they never turned into soil.

***

About a week from collecting kitchen scraps, the it started growing green mold. By this time, the compost started attracting flies. That is when I realized I should not keep making compost indoor. I took my compost container to the side , where we had never used before corona quarantine started. I was afraid that our neighbor wouldsmell the compost and complain but the covert soil prevented the odor well.

Another week has passed. I was curious if the compost has turned to soil so I poked and turned the soil around in the container.

Wow!!! The smell!!! Worse than last week!

I have immediately covered the container with more soil, and looked at the neighbor’s window. A little relief. It was closed.

As for the compost, it was not ready yet. The scraps had already turned blackish, mostly, but I still saw chunks of orange peels.

In the third week, the compost has started smelling like soil, like the smell of earth after the rain. I still saw some chunks of scraps and the smell of rotten food was still there but it was a lot less.

The compost turned completely black and no more rotten-food smell in the fifth week. It did not look like kitchen scrap but dark soil. It is amazing how kitchen scraps turns into soil.

I have decided to use that batch of compost to start planting. The first attempt was tomato. My wife has removed some seeds from tomato when she was cooking the other day. The tomato grew very well, and we have harvested several fruits of tomato from the scrap.

Since then, we have been making soil on our own, and planting different vegetables. Still, many plants did not grow but we have had some successful ones, especially tomatoes.

By the way, since we did not have containers to plant things to start with, we have recycled plastic boxes that lettuce, tomatoes or other vegetables come in. The idea sounds cheap but we have made quite a vegetable garden in our yard.