You’re never too young. You’re never too old. You’re never too early. You’re never too late. If it’s today and you’re alive, then now is your time and here is your place. You are always the right age. You are always in the right place. Today is always the right time. The only wrong day is tomorrow.

“82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding”
[「世界最高齢のアプリ開発者」と認められた82歳の日本人女性はなぜアプリ開発の道へと進んだのか？ – GIGAZINE] ]]> /random-linkage-never-too-late/feed/ 0 /random-linkage-something-different/ /random-linkage-something-different/#respond Mon, 14 May 2018 14:59:19 +0000 /?p=31987 This entry is part of 6 in the series Random Linkage

You know, I love when hip-hop videos make brave and/or unique decisions without compromising on their musicality. It’s particularly awesome when this bravery/uniqueness involves embracing a non-standard “localness” ¹, that is, an aesthetic that sits squarely outside of and sets itself apart from the traditional hip-hop capitals (New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta). ²

This video is the perfect example of that: shot in the United Kingdom, with a Japanese rapper who embraces his quotidian Japaneseness, down to the use of a small, unobtrusive front-sling (manbag) for his stuff, so as not to take up too much space on the train . Totes adorbs.

• [(243) BIM – Bonita – YouTube] goo.gl/Q1WzEe

Incidentally, the keyboard in Bonita reminds me a lot of this also-awesome Korean rap song: [(243) 식케이 Sik-K – party(SHUT DOWN)(feat. 크러쉬(Crush)) Official Music Video – YouTube] goo.gl/AapCtH

Also, just so we’re clear, I also really enjoy the work of rappers like Zeebra and DABO, both of whom tend to wear their American (and Caribbean?) influences on their sleeves more. It’s all art, and variety is the spice of life and all that.

“The 20-Second Rule

What stops you from making the changes you know you should? Shawn_{[Shawn Achor: ショーン・エイカー 「幸福と成功の意外な関係」 | TED Talk] goo.gl/jsBhxX} says it’s “activation energy.”

You know, like the activation energy it takes to initially get your butt off the couch and to the gym. The hard part is getting started._{“Stop stopping. Stopping is the worst thing. Stopping breaks your momentum. Stopping is the start of decay and regression. When you choose to stop, you set yourself the task not only of getting back up to the same speed as before but also to the same altitude — the same level of Japanese. Taking a break from Japanese will hurt your Japanese. A lot. Each time you stop, you lengthen the road to fluency. When you stop, you quite literally become like Sisyphus: forever pushing the rock of your Japanese ability up the hill, only to have it roll down each time you pause. And just like Sisyphus, you have to retread the same ground to get back up where you were. Always restoring, never progressing; it’s a huge freaking waste of time.”
[Are You a Three-Day Monk? | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time] goo.gl/yJzQqh}

If you reduce the amount of activation energy required, tough things become easy. So make new habits 20 seconds easier to start.

Shawn would sleep in his gym clothes and put his sneakers next to the bed and it made him much more likely to exercise when he woke up._{“You don’t have to run tomorrow morning. You just have to have your shoes on and be standing outside. You don’t have to eat healthy food, you just have to have (only) healthy food in your house. Once you’ve fulfilled the situational goal, you can go back inside to eat potato chips (oh, wait…none in the house — better run to the grocery store to get some) and watch Robot Chicken (oh wait, I only have Japanese versions…) if you want.
You may think just “being there”, standing outside with your shoes on, doesn’t do anything, and doesn’t achieve anything. And you’re right. But you’re also wrong. Because by being there you have done some incredibly profound scale-tipping — you have made it easier to do something, than to not do it. You have turned an uphill mountain hike into a playful, downward slide. You are now working with gravity, instead of against it.”
[Comfort Zone, Growth Zone, Panic Zone and Situational Goals: Life Is Easier Than You Think | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time] goo.gl/CSdXzr}

Here’s Shawn:

“If you can make the positive habit three to 20 seconds easier to start, your likelihood of doing it rises dramatically. And you can do the same thing by flipping it for negative habits. Watching too much television? Merely take out the batteries of the remote control creating a 20 second delay and it dramatically decreases the amount of television people will watch.”

[Be More Successful: New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Do It – Barking Up The Wrong Tree]

In no particular order:

• [(171) Black & Yellow (The Red & White Remix)　Aka赤／Shiro白 by Kojoe – YouTube] goo.gl/DGbGT5
• [(171) Black and Yellow Sketch | Hidamari Sketch × Wiz Khalifa – YouTube] goo.gl/2MqWK
• [(171) LOVER/JAPANESE YELLOW (wiz khalifa/Black And Yellow REMIX) – YouTube] goo.gl/wymHyd
• [(171) Black and Yellow- Wiz Khalifa Cantonese Chinese cover (AhG) – YouTube] goo.gl/JkXkTB
• [(171) Wiz Khalifa – Black and Yellow – AFRICAN REMIX!!! – YouTube] goo.gl/MtpAmo
• [(171) D Pryde Blue & Purple – (Official Video) – YouTube] goo.gl/Wtoh6B

A sonic and visual love letter to old skool hip-hop. These kids (Kid Fresino in particular) clearly drank deep. What they lack in confidence (stage presence), they more than make up for in impeccable taste and sheer skill:

• [(171) KID FRESINO – Special Radio ft IO – YouTube] goo.gl/xfTBfj

This is definitely one of those songs where the video does the heavy lifting. If I do end up listening to it on the reg, it’ll definitely be because the audio reminds me of the mood and visuals of the video.

Hip-hop videos, Japanese ones included, tend to feature, shall we say, women of a more earthy, dancehallian, biological beauty. And that’s fine. In fact, it can be a lot of fun — rubenesque rapper Maria’s playful references to her body and 100-cm waist in the remix of the Jazee Minor song “100” were thoroughly enjoyable.

But the subdued, abstract, ethereal and — to be blunt — somewhat neotenous beauty on display in this video is a welcome change of pace.

• [(171) Feelin29 Feat.KOJOE – 5lack – YouTube] goo.gl/noKqGL

• [(171) MIYACHI – WAKARIMASEN (PROD. MIYACHI) – YouTube] goo.gl/zH5mcY
• “No Speak English” is also the name of an awesome AJATT game: [No Speak English | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time] goo.gl/gPwYno