in japan, as in most of asia, most woodworking is done a little differently from western approaches. it is cultural. in a society based on harmony and integration, sacrificing your own safety and pulling the sharp tool became the norm over centuries of development while in the west, where individualism… Read More »the beauty of the pull-stroke

let’s talk a little about the army. the american army in particular because that’s the real focus but this applies to most countries, especially in the western world. i am a strong component of demilitarization and pacifism at all costs. but this is not an argument for disarmament in the… Read More »disarming

the language frame east asia is home to myriad languages but three are very dominant — chinese, japanese and korean. today we will look at how these languages communicate in writing and how that compares to english. the first thing to note about this is that these languages share certain… Read More »writing in east asia

there has been a significant amount of whining both within the autistic community and outside it. the first is mostly because of oddly-missing information. the second is, i suspect, based in our cultural obsession of late with shaming people and taking any excuse to make noise about things that sound… Read More »the issue with asperger’s

the king ain’t dead. and by king i mean president. trump survived his dubious encounter with the novel coronavirus and that’s probably the worst possible thing that could have happened to america. no, i don’t mean because it would be good if he died. that’s a whole other issue. but… Read More »long live the king?

today, i’m old. ok, now that i think more clearly on the subject, i’m not suddenly old. i’ve been old for a long time. i’m not sure where old starts and people will generally say no, it’s not a real issue and it’s all about how you feel. and i… Read More »escape from wombland