A serious and sometimes not so serious personal blog
First, the black Honda sedan pushed me out of my lane and into an on-ramp. Immediately after, an Access A Ride van slowed way down from about 50 to 20 and after I changed lanes to pass, pushed into my lane from the right. I had to cross halfway into the left lane to get around him.
And this is pretty normal for New York City drivers.
I was surprised to find out this artist was painting back in the 60s. I just assumed it was modern (2000s) pop art and was a print, not oil on canvas. His art impresses me more now.
I knew Japan had homeless people, but I didn’t think it wasn’t quite this bad. I’ve previously seen shows with people who were suffering from situations of homelessness, but they were taken care of by Japan’s social services system and had been placed in temporary housing. It was a long time ago and I barely remember the show, but it was a woman with a child. There were pathways set up to get people back on their feet and back into regular society.
The woman in this video says that a lot of Japanese people don’t qualify for those services, however, and some choose not to use them. I’m guessing it has something to do with pride, like the gentleman in the video above who lost his retirement money gambling in Las Vegas, so they wind up living on the fringes of society in makeshift dwellings, apparently until they reach a certain age, when they qualify for space in essentially old folks homes.
The sample set in the video above is pretty small. I wonder if all of the homeless people in Japan really live and act the same way as those pictured, or if this is designed specifically to show the best since they’re soliciting donations. I also wonder how Japanese people feel about foreigners coming to take care of them considering the rumored Japanese aversion to foreigners even being in Japan. Maybe when your situation is that precarious, you have to set aside pride and ego. Regardless, it’s impressive to see these people making the best of their situation, especially the couple that even had a garden set up.
I tried to make my first purchase from the App Store on Mac OS (Dark Reader for Safari) and ran into an issue where every payment card in my Apple Wallet, including my Apple Card, were deactivated and noted as “not available”.
When I tried to make a purchase, it would ask me to sign into my Apple account, then it would tell me that I needed to verify my account. I honestly couldn’t figure out how to do that on Mac OS. I had to open my iPhone to check there instead.
I went to Settings > tapped on my name at the top > Media and Purchases > View Account. I hit a roadblock here. I had to disable Adguard for iOS to get into the next screen. Once I got to the next screen, I clicked on Purchase History.
At the top there was a warning message saying there was something wrong with my payment methods. Tapping it took me to a screen showing my saved payment methods in Apple Wallet. I had to reverify them all. With Apple Cash, I had to “edit” and then just save the same information. Then everything worked again.
Once I did that, I was able to go back to my MacBook and purchase Dark Reader for Safari with no issues. I didn’t have to disable Adguard either.
Ever since I bought a MacBook Air, I’ve been having issues with my Apple account. About a week or so after buying the MacBook Air, my Apple account was locked out. The only reason I was able to recover my account is because I had my security key from my iPhone saved.
So, what’s the deal? Did someone else previously buy this MacBook Air and return it? Did Apple sell me a used product as new and that’s causing issues? I honestly can’t think of how anyone would have my Apple payment information or access to my account. I also can’t think of why every card in my Apple Wallet would suddenly need to be re-added or reverified. I go to the same places all the time.
Is it just software errors? If so, that’s almost as concerning. I wanted to get a new MacBook Air because I remembered how great my MacBook Pro from 2007 was. I wanted stability, reliability, and something that “just works”. It’s only been a few months, but I’ve had more issues with my Apple account in those few months than in the last 17 years. Hopefully nothing else crazy happens.
As an aside, Dark Reader for Safari looks amazing on the MacBook Air M2.
This was delicious. It’s not as good as a mochi donut from KAI Sweets, but it was a nice treat for today, and something different than what we usually get.
I enjoy that Mitsuwa Marketplace runs fairs occasionally. The fact that we can’t get this item all the time makes it more special.
Mitsuwa Marketplace itself is undergoing some renovations right now. It was kind of disappointing, because we wanted to get sushi rice but the rice wasn’t out on the shelves. The cooler where the mochi is kept was off too, as was the cooler for the alcohol. I’m not sure what the coolers have to do with the renovations being done, but they are putting in new lighting so I guess they had to turn that circuit off.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the place looks like when the renovations are completed. The ceiling they’re putting in is dark, which seems like a weird choice to me. It seems like you’d want a grocery store to be brightly colored and brightly lit.
This is the train I would take if I used the subway to get to work. But I don’t take the train because, despite what the mayor and MTA officials have been saying, it’s not safe to use the subway system in New York City. They know it. We know it. They won’t police the city properly and then act surprised when people don’t want to expose themselves to danger.
I’m very much against congestion pricing because of situations like this. If the city and the train system was safe, it would be different, but the NYPD has been neutered. We need to bring back stop and frisk. We need to make arrests stick so that jails aren’t a revolving door for repeat offenders with rap sheets longer than a CVS receipt. We need to stop spending money on illegal aliens and spend it on things that matter.
Shootings on the trains. Protesters being allowed to shut down roads and buildings with impunity. Kids getting kicked out of schools so illegals can live in them. $53 million dollars for prepaid debit cards for illegals when US CITIZENS are living on the streets or struggling to keep bills paid, including US Veterans. It’s a shame. It’s scandalous. But elected officials don’t care. They seem to think that people value illegals over the rights and needs of citizens and keep wasting our money on them. What money they aren’t pocketing, like that missing $850 million dollars that disappeared into De Blasio’s wife’s pockets.
I can’t understand how these Democrats run the city into the ground and then act surprised that everything is going off the rails. They keep adding taxes and tolls and fare increases, but they don’t provide improved services, and no one’s salary is going up fast enough to cover all of these expenses, including higher rents. All of the money we pay in taxes is being mismanaged and misspent. New York City feels like a third world country. And what I can’t understand the most is how people in New York City keep voting Democrat anyway. I guess some people just like to keep hitting themselves.
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
So, we started out watching a video about a girl going on a trip in an N-Van to a tourist destination in Japan, then watched the couple in the video above ride an actual Thomas the Tank Engine steam train in Japan followed by a stop at a scenic suspension bridge, and then I wound up watching a long, long video (below) of a guy living in a box conversion on the back of a Toyota pickup truck for the winter which was oddly relaxing. In each video, the people slept or lived in the back of their vehicles.
I think these kinds of videos appeal to me because there’s a sense of freedom involved in not being tied down to one location. There must be a lot of hidden costs and complexities involved, but it feels like simple living and an escape from reality while watching from this side of the screen.
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 