Flower & Vase

The absolutely necessary, wake up call, because you’d, missed the purpose of things completely: it’s not the flowers that accentuates the vases, it’s the vases that fitted to the, flowers being, arranged into a piece!  Translated…

On a quiet afternoon, I’d entered into a florist that just opened close to my home.

Because I’d gotten involved in the floral arrangement course set up by my coworkers, I’d thought of finding some materials to practice what I’d picked up.

The shop was not big, at the entrance, there were, an assortment of bonsais, inside there were three walls, with the pots, the vases, and varieties of dried flowers, and fresh ones too.

The owner of the shop is a middle age woman, sitting by the huge table in the middle of the shop, lifted her head saw me, “Welcome”.  She’d smiled at me, and she looked, a bit, surprised, perhaps, there were rarely, any males who’d, might wander into her shop.

“What species is this?”, I’d pointed to a huge dried flower that I’d never seen before, on the distant tiny table.

“I really don’t know,” she’d smiled apologetically, “but it’s rare, as I bought it, I’d arranged it into a piece, because it’d matched perfectly with this pottery vase………”

the arrangement, photo from UDN.com

I’d looked at it, thought about the varied vases my classmates brought with them, each with its own unique look, very elegant in color, and I can tell that they weren’t, the cheap kinds.

“Do you know, that it’s the vases that we buy first, before we decide on the arrangements of the flowers………”, she’d told me, “actually, it’s, exactly the opposite, she’d told me, it’s the flowers that accentuate the pottery vase, with the flowers, it’d made the vase look more, lively, don’t’ you think?”

I was surprised at her words, then, I got lost, in my own, thought.

I had two vases, and they’d looked, quite, ordinary, plain, but I’d searched for the assortments of, rare species of, “pretty” flowers instead.

As I got out of the florist’s shop, I was still, reliving the moment of that wakeup call I just had inside the shop.

Not long thereafter, as I passed by this street again, I’d found, that the doors of this florist was already, deadbolted, the iron doors rolled, back down, the potted plants by the outside of the shop, all, withered, out, while I’d never, met up with that female shop owner, again either.

And so, this, is on how we often, missed the boat of the purpose of things, like the man he thought that he’d needed the pretty species of flowers to make his vases stand out, while the florist who is a professional on flower arrangement more or less, knew that it’s the vases that are, secondary to the flowers.

Memorial Holidays

More than just a day off, a long weekend, but that, is what we’d interpreted these memorial holidays as, an extra day off from work, an extra day off from school, without KNOWING where these memorial holidays’ origins, we are bound to repeat the same mistakes of history over, over, over, and over again!  Translated…

“I don’t know what to say to you!  We’d been dating three years, you never recalled my birthday correctly……”, received that text from a former boyfriend of mine, whose birthday I couldn’t remember the exact date, but recalled the sign he was born in, as he’d responded to my birthday wish that came a bit, too, early for him.  I’d made fun of myself, “at least, I know it’s, this month, I just forgot what day it was, so long as my heart’s there, right?”, he’d sent me an icon with the character’s eyes rolling to the back of the head then, with, “You hadn’t changed one bit.  Yeah, just as well, at least, we don’t get bogged down by memorizing all those, first time we’d shared something.”, I could feel his upset, through reading the words he’d typed, based off of what he’d told me, he was in a “cold war” with his wife, because he’d forgotten to prepare an anniversary present for her.

Being a workaholic, that can’t even recall her own birthday, the red on the calendar to me meant, “days I won’t have work”: and every time the red came, most of the public offices are closed, and, Friday evenings were the deadlines to mail out an assortments of packages.  While what reminded of the holidays, were the streets’ decors, the shops windows, the websites’ reminders, and, other than the New Year’s, Memorial Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn, and some other traditional holidays, along with all those other days, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Teachers’ Day, we all need to, show our, appreciations.  Taking it internationally, Christmases, to the digits of the shopping holidays………holidays, birthdays, memorials, special occasions, they’d all, meshed together into a huge blur, the meanings of these occasions seemed to have gotten, diluted down, becoming, an excuse for justifiable, spending, a day off, or a reason to party hard.

And yet, in all those celebratory occasions, there were the days labeled as “Memorial Days”, that had a depth of meaning, the red on the calendars became like that scab that’s was originally an wide open wound, labeling the common pains, it’d made me extremely careful, as I’d, touched based, like I was, touching that brand new layer of skin that just, grew back from my injuries, for instance, the February 28^th Peace Memorial.

During the holidays, the families gathered, to explain to my elementary age niece why she didn’t have school on the last day of February, I’d looked up the definition of a “Memorial holiday”, the Chinese dictionary defined it as: “a day which was meaningful, a day worth remembering”.  While February 28^th in Wikipedia was noted as “to memorialized what had happened on February 28^th in 1947, the day was noted as a memorial holiday in 1995, as a national holiday”.  What conflicts had happened historically on today, where did it happen, who did it, involve, and, what had the country weathered, to get to the peaceful state it is currently in, for it to “evolve” into the RED “holiday”?  This history that can’t be told in a few words, I couldn’t, tell my niece using the “For Dummies” version; but, I’d given a history lesson, to their parents born in the eighties, on democracy.

What people cared more about, on these memorial holidays today, is how many days off do we get extra?  How do you schedule our trips abroad?  In the years of peace that we now have, we’d, forgotten how hard those who came before had walked the paths.  And, as the meaningful memorial days became reduced to a page that gets torn off from a thick calendar, peace then became, nothing more, than a tiny little, blessing to the people, and we, who are living, growing on this land, how many stories can we, pass, to the next generations, to come?

To a young seven-year-old girl, the incident on February 28^th, and the White Terror, may be a PG-13 horror film, it’s also, a memorial day that’s, way too, heavyset; but, if we can have the respects for those who’d died, through the historical researches, find more records on the events, to get a multivariate angle of the historical tale, to guide the younger generation to learn to respect those who aren’t like us in race, sex, viewpoints, and experiences in life, to help them gain the ability to empathize, to experience the pains of others, I’m certain, that this sort of a memorial day will leave a deeper impression than all the fireworks, and it’d helped us look forward to the future of progressions in democracy too.

And so, this is on how those days which are labeled as “national holidays”, became nothing MORE than just those long-weekends, days off from work and school to the people in the world these days, because we lacked the knowledge base of what’d happened on these occasions in history, because, history are no longer important, as governments in the world’s countries are now, trying to, ERASE the pasts for the people, and because the people are less educated about where they came from (not physically!), they would not have a single clue of where they’re going, and they’d be more inclined, to follow a leader (which is usually a bad one!), to hell, to repeating the same mistakes of those who came before, and, we’re all, trapped, inside those, vicious cycle, because the government does NOT educate us.

A Man with a Crush on a Single Mother, Stalked & Threatened Her, Caught & Sent to Jail

Despite how the ANTI-HARASSMENT law had been signed into effect, it still doesn’t do SHIT in deterring these bad behaviors, nor prevent these things from recurring in the society, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

A man, Huang, started dating a single mother, the woman wanted to break up, Huang didn’t, he’d waited until she was asleep, and secretly recorded her personal data, her schedule, the photos she’d saved, as well as the conversation records on her cell p hone, to know where she is, and texted “we’re going to die together” as threats; Huang claimed that it was only him, venting, showing how he “will NEVER break up with her”, the courts found him guilty on obstructions in computer usage, and the anti-stalking laws, gave him fifty-five day prison term.

Based off of understanding, both Huang and the woman are in their fifties, they were dating, but didn’t cohabit; in January of last year, the woman wanted to break up, Huang was strongly opposed to it, they’d stayed, connected; in May of last year, the two went to a motel, when the woman was asleep, Huang took the advantage of the time, keyed in her cell phone passwords to gain access to what she’d saved on her phone, the photos, the footages, as well as the clips of the conversation records, her work schedule, along with other personal information, and sent it to his own phone.

As Huang got a hold of the woman’s schedules, he’d tagged along the back of her car with his car, gone to her workplace, to know who she was interacting with, and went to the door of her office and called aloud, “I don’t want to break up!”; and he’d also texted her repeatedly, “let’s die together, why don’t we?”, “I’ll buy some pesticides and come find you”, “don’t give me a chance, why don’t you kill me instead”, etc., etc., etc., and it’d impacted the woman too hard, she’d gone to see a psychiatrist for it.

Afterwards, the woman couldn’t withstand Huang’s harassments and threats any longer, she’d told her daughter, then reported it to the police, the police called Huang to interview him, he’d admitted to the threatening messages he’d sent, and all the behaviors, claimed that he only wanted the woman to take him back, that he was only expressing how he “will NEVER break up no matter what”.

The Taichung District Courts considered, that Huang admitted to what he’d done, but already caused the victim to fear, to become suicidal, that he’d broken the laws, plus the woman refused to forgive him in trial, nor settle the matter, sentenced him to fifty-five days in jail, he can pay a total of $55,000N.T. and not serve any time on using technology to harass and invasion of privacy, this can still be appealed.

And this is still too lenient, I mean, because of this LOSER’s tendencies and priors (he HAD, harassed the woman, threatened to kill her then commit suicide!), despite how she’d told him she wanted to break up, and, he’d invaded her privacy too, and, you think the bars of prison are going to, keep him away from doing it again?  Yeah, that’s now how those, obsessed EXES work, and after he’d served his “hard time”, surely enough, the woman’s going to get tailed, and harassed again, because these sorts of punishment does NOT do SHIT!

The Extramarital Affair of the Hsinbei Fire Department Chief, Huang’s Resignation Approved

If these heads of the cities’ various departments can’t even behave themselves, what do you think this SHOWED about the morale of those who’d, ruled over us, huh???  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Busted as the Woman Wanted to Break the Six-Year Relationship, but Huang Didn’t, the Woman Accused Him for Harassing Calls, and Blocked Her Path and Begged to Get Back Together

The Fire Department Chief of Hsinbei City, Huang, was found to have had an extramarital affair with a female boss of an electronics plant for six years, the woman wanted to end it, in two weeks’ time, Huang had flash-called her hundreds of time to get her to take him back, he’d even gone to her home to block her path, the woman couldn’t take it any longer.  Huang’s behaviors were found out, on the twenty-fifth, he’d quickly resigned, the city government allowed him to, the assistant director of the Hsinbei Fire Department, Lee is now the chief.

Based off of understanding, Huang and the woman met at a high-end steak gathering six years ago, they’d exchanged contact information, and afterwards, Huang started texting her, in pursuit.

Based off of what’s been disclosed, the woman originally didn’t want to be a couple with him, but they’d started having an extramarital affair, but the woman didn’t want to be the other woman for the rest of her life, and she “was painful in this sort of a relationship”, at the end of last year, she’d finally decided to break it off with him.

On January 2^nd of this year was the very last time they met up face-to-face, but Huang still couldn’t let go, repeatedly calling, sent the text messages, to try to save their relationship, and he’d even gone to her home and waited for two whole hours outside; and the harassment exacerbated until the woman couldn’t handle it anymore, and was planning on suing him.

The attorney He believed, that if Huang had made up to a hundred calls in the two-week time period, texted the woman too many times, and asked her to take him back, then, he would have broken the anti-stalking laws.

The attorney told, that the stalking prevention laws protects the lives and privacies of the victims, as the victims got stalked, the first step is to head to the police to report, to have the police investigate, to clarify if the anti-stalking laws had been broken, then, confirm which of the eight means of stalking the behaviors fitted to.

And if the police, after investigations found that it was, stalking behaviors, then, they will call up the suspect to ask the individual about her/his behaviors, and the motives behind the stalking, and the police can also issue a written warning, and if the victims are still stalked or harassed then, they can file for a restraining order from the courts.

The press called up Huang, but he’d not responded back, the Hsinbei City Government confirmed on the 25^th, that Huang had, resigned from the post, and the assistant fire department chief, Lee got promoted to his position yesterday.

And, harassment can be done by anyone, man, woman, a nobody, a somebody, and it all starts with, that relationship, then, the relationship with that certain someone had ended, and the one who still wanted to continue didn’t want it to end, and start to, harass, and that’s now, against, the law here.

A Matter of, Last Names…

Yes, we’re, BACK on, this, “subject of discussion” again, so, BEAR with me here!

Why the FUCK (don’t pardon me!) must we women TAKE our husbands’ (still ONE at a time, LADIES!) last names?  I mean, can’t we keep our own, “surnames” from before we married you mother @#$%ERS?

We have the right to CHOOSE WHOSE last names we take, our fathers’, our mothers’, etc., etc., etc., because we do NOT belong TO anyone, because we are NOT anybody else’s POSSESSIONS.

A matter of, last names, yeah, I got NO problems with my last name, because I CHOSE my own, because I have the right to, and, unless I’d, broken some law in doing so, and you want to come and arrest me for my right to my own last name, yeah, then BACK off!

We women do NOT belong to our fathers, our mothers, our HAS-BEENS, so we got NO need, to FUCKING take YOUR last names, losers, and so, you can go and take all your last names, and just???

Oh yeah, SHOVE IT!

And that would be, T-H-A-T.

The Middle-School Age Female Student Was Called “Ugly”, Had Her Friends Ganged Up on the Person, Forced Her to Get Down on Her Knees and Apologize by Knocking Her Head to the Ground Repeatedly

Bullying in the teenage years here!  Off of the Newspapers, translated…

A female middle school student from Tucheng, Hsinbei City, got upset of how another female student criticized how she appeared physically, had the classmates ganged up on her, forced her to kneel, and knocked her head to her to apologize, and even filmed the whole thing, then streamed it online.  The families of the victim already demanded that the footages get taken off the internet yesterday, and went to the police to report the case.  The school stated that they are going to set up a bully prevention team, to offer counseling to the victim as well as the perpetrators too.

The footages showed, the adolescent girl called on all her friends, and blocked the victim off into a dead-end ally, and demanded that she get down on her knees to apologize, the victim kneeled and knocked her head against the concrete said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said those bad things about you”, the bully called her out, “why did you say those bad things about me?”, “what made you so much better than I?”, the victim knocked her head against the concrete and continued, “I shouldn’t have called you ugly”, the abuser and her friends captured all of this on their cellphone, and the footages showed the victim’s head covered in egg yolk and egg white, suspected that the group had smashed the eggs against her head.

and this is what bullying without that SMACKDOWN looked, like…

photo from online

The victim’s parents heard their daughter’s friends told, that was when they learned that she was bullied, but they couldn’t get their daughter to tell them what happened, it wasn’t until the parents saw the footages themselves, yesterday, the parents of the bullied victim went to the school, demanded the perps to delete the footage, the friends and families told, that although the other girl’s parents went to school, but they’d not apologized, and the family already notified the police, they’re waiting on the investigation results.

the school told, that they will host an emergency anti-bullying prevention forum by next Monday, and counsel all students involved in the incident, and offer whatever the parents requested the school.

The Hsinbei Department of Education told, after investigation, this was a misunderstanding among the peers that’s caused the confrontations outside of school, the school already reported the matter, and are now, taking the footages offline, the parents also arrived to school to the counseling of the students involved.

And so, this is still an abuser/enabler interaction, and no, I’m still on the side of the bullies, but, had you not talked TRASH about someone, then, would that person feel compelled to GANG up on you with her friends?  Of course not, and BOTH sides are at fault in this matter!

The Judo Coach’s Body-Slamming the Male Student to Death, Second Trial Maintained the Nine-Year Prison Term from the Last Trial

The verdict’s finally, “IN”!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Taichung Judo coach, He, because of the seven-year-old pupil, Huang refused to do the Judo moves that he was teaching, he’d thrown Huang over his shoulders, tossed him up in the air, watched him land on the mats, causing the child to go into a coma then die, the first trial found He guilty of manslaughter, sentenced him to nine years; He appealed, that before Huang arrived to the dojo, he may have slammed into something himself, that his injuries weren’t caused by the lessons.  The High Subsidiary Court of Taichung didn’t believe his claims, confirmed that Huang’s injuries were caused by his landing on the mats after being slammed, maintained the original verdict; this can still be appealed.

The seventy-year-old He is a certified Judo coach, started teaching for free at the basement of Taichung Fengyuan Gym in 2015, the seven-year-old Huang went to take the lesson two years ago in April, He assigned Liao, who’d been taking the lessons for five years to pair up with Huang for the practice throws, because Huang didn’t follow the orders, He repeatedly threw him over his shoulders, and tossed Huang’s body up in the air multiple times, causing Huang to sustain multiple head trauma which caused Huang to go into a coma

After two months of treatment, Huang is declared dead, the Taichung High Subsidiary Court’s second trial found, that based off of the forensic autopsy reports, Huang had hematoma in his head, subdural hematoma in his brains, which caused sepsis, the injuries were from “counter hitting impact”, “a reactive sort of injury”, with the cause of repeatedly hitting the areas of the brain against something soft, confirmed that He didn’t have the set intentions of, harm.

the judge believed that Huang had rammed his own head, that there was no evidence proving that, that it was all speculation, that it was his way of evading responsibilities, considering how he’d denied what he did, and not settled with the families of the child, but didn’t have any priors, that the verdict from the first trial was just and fitting, tossed both the D.A. and He’s appeal.

So, this is the aftermath, after that kid got body slammed in his judo class and died, and, nine years for this “unintentional” murder is still too lenient, I mean, you are a coach, and you should’ve had the sense, knowing, that the students were only beginners, that they may not know how much force they’re slamming each other with, and at the least, you are, negligent, and the charge should be, MANSLAUGHTER, but it wasn’t!  The punishment should be a hell of a lot more, harsher than just nine years, but it wasn’t.

Goodwill

Kindness is, reciprocated here, how this elderly showed the genuine kindness and concern toward someone she bought the items from, and the shop owners also, returned, the “favor”…translated…

My mother and I sat down to order, we’d ordered the meal combo special of this shop, porkchops.  My mother pointed to the menu with the single orders of the karaage chicken nuggets.

“I want to give the orders to the owners of those two stands, they’re both, very kind!”  looking at my questioning look, she’d explained.  Is it necessary?  I’d mumbled, we’d already, bought something from them, that should be, enough though.

Before we at, we were shopping at the square in the mall, the red coral jewelry caught my mother’s, attention, she’d walked up to the elderly owner to inquire, he was ever the more patient, brought out every item she was interested in, and explained the pieces, also told my mother, that most of the items, he’d designed the styles, and carved them himself, those few peanut shell carvings you can’t tell they’re from stone, placed next to the real peanuts.

My mother exclaimed at his artistry, he’d chuckled and told, that it was because he wasn’t studious enough, his grandfather sent him to stone carving lessons, so he could, have that, viable, skill to live off of.  My mother commended him on how talented he is, that he should NEVER let his skillset become, extinct!  In the end, my mother bought a tiny carved owl which the owner told could bring a good life to the one who has it, for me.

“The owner is kind, I’d told him that we bought the red coral carvings from before, that I just wanted to know how much it is now, he’d not minded, and still patiently explained to us”, my mother told me, in a, lowered, voice.

The adjacent booth had the Hokkaido specialty items, the female owner was very courteous, and very enthusiastic, explained to us the various products her company had, produced, and, used her phone, and showed us the videos of how to make the foods, allowed us to sample the pomelo peel soaked in sugary syrup, and let us tried a few sample cups of the specialty alcohol too.

My mother conversed with her in Japanese, and she’d told of how she’d gone to Japan with her father, the female owner listened tentatively, opened her eyes wide, and kept stating, “Amazing!  Great!”, and as my mother learned that she could speak Japanese, she’d commended the woman, they had a good time in conversation, and the owner of the stand even started telling my mother of her husband, her kids too, I’d taken a shot of them together.

We bought a huge bag of goods from her, the woman gave my mother an expensive bottle of beer, handed it to my mother, “you told me you loved beer, I want to give you this as a sample, but hope you don’t mind, it’s, close to expiration date.”, my mother told her no, that she wanted to pay for it, but the female owner kept insisting, then, wrapped the cardboard pieces around the bottle, then, stuffed it into our, shopping bags.

After the porkchop meal, my mother carried the bags of chicken nuggets, and, walked to these two stands, handed the owners a bag each, told them that watching the stands must be hard, that this is some snack to chew on.  The two owners, because nobody came to shop, looked a bit, down, but, as soon as my mother handed them the bags of foods, their faces brightened like the sunshine.

The female Japanese stand owner picked up another flavored beer, and, stuffed it to us, insisted that we take it.  the owner of the mineral stand also, turned and picked up a tiny decoration, put it in our, bags.

The bags are heavier now, but, our hearts, were, lighter.

And so, this is the cycle of kindness, because the mother of the writer’s considerations for the stand owners, that’s why they also, returned the favors, and that, is how interpersonal relations should be, based off of genuine care and concerns for another human being, not expecting anything in return, for the kindness you’d shown to them, and surely enough, those who’d received your kindness will be, more than willing, to return that same sort of kindness back, to you too.

Tired of Dealing with Bad Customers, Nintendo Started Taking Actions to Not Allow the Bad Customers to Have Everything Their Ways

Finally, the “culture” of “the customers are always right” is, shifting, and this would be, a GREAT thing, because let’s face it, customers aren’t always “right”, and we think we can, get away with, just about anything because we PAID for the goods, well, NOT anymore!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan had listed “bullying of customer services” as a factor of damaging to the labor environment, by Taiwanese it’s the bad customers, the amendments encouraged the enterprises to set up the rules of managing the complaints of customers.  Last October, Nintendo posted that if the clients can’t give a reasonable reason for the repairs, the employees have the right to reject repairing of the products.

The Nintendo Company posted the rules on its website, set up the “bad customers” clause, that if the customers harassed, threatened, along with using an assortment of other means to harass customer service, the company has the right to refuse exchanges, repairing the products.  The online community gave this their thumbs up, supported that Nintendo supporting their workers on the frontlines.

the field of customer services, and this, is what you’re dealing with, every single day!

photo from online

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan investigated, that 19.5-percent of laborers expressed that they’d been physically abused, verbally abused, and threatened by customers.  In the past, there were the workers, kneeling down to settle the customers’ complaints.  And the industries of taxi, nursing centers, along with other locations, business that serviced people, have an even higher chance of encountering these bad customers.

There are a lot of the bad customers in the government public offices too.  Sixty-percent of the interviewed government public services workers stated that they’d been treated unreasonably by locals, like being threatened that their names, their photos online publicly, and some even got threatened with attacks.

The social psychology professor of Kansai University, Ikeuchi pointed out, that the Japanese culture does NOW allow any mistakes, plus, the people are already now, very highly tense on the tightened rules of getting the pandemic controlled, their breaking points became, lowered, which caused the increases in the bullying of customer services.  The scholars believed, that Nintendo’s leading in denying services to unreasonable customers, this can surely become a good model for all other, enterprises.

And so, this is in Japan, a country where they valued the opinions and rights of the customers, and yet, these customers sometimes abuse the companies’ treating them like V.I.P.s and stated abusing the workers, making the unreasonable, demands, and calling the workers bad names, and so, there’s a need to set up these sorts of regulations, to keep the workers’ work environment friendly for them.

Racism (Hot take) — Ordinary Person

Only a white bigot or a very ignorant, impressionable person ensconced in privilege will say racism doesn’t exist. You encounter it everywhere — the blogosphere, predominately white countries and hell, even in Asia. You’ll find the puritanical preacher from the deep South, arriving in ‘poor impoverished India, where the cheats and scammers live, the crude […]

Racism (Hot take) — Ordinary Person