ByGD
Since December is usually a bit of a quiet month for work, January is usually a bit quiet for publications. But the cogs keep turning, even if slowly, and still had about a dozen articles published – so maybe not so slowly after all. Take a look.
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ByGD
When I started traveling to Japan in the 1990’s, I was shocked to see brides lining up to have their wedding photos taken in public places like the major temples or scenic spots in Ueno Park.
I was at an age where a lot of my friends were getting married, so I had a sense that outdoor wedding photos were pretty popular at home, too. But I couldn’t imagine American brides lining up for the good photo spots or carefully posing to stay out of each others’ pictures. Americans want to be the only people in the place, especially for their own, special big days.
But there are too many people in too small a space for the Japanese to think that way.
What surprised me even more was seeing the same crowds of wedding photo sessions in China – even at much less iconic spots. China has a lot more room than Japan. But this random grassy lawn in Qingdao was littered with bridal shoots on a Saturday in May. I couldn’t even fit them all in the shot.
ByGD
At any given time I have a couple dozen themed drafts started of these Music I Like posts. But I still regularly find things I like that don’t quite fit any of the themes. Sometimes I like the challenge of making up a new category. But sometimes I just want to tell people about something cool I found. This is one of those times.
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ByGD
Another year, another Goodreads Challenge. Since I started reading so many graphic novels, setting my challenge goal has been a challenge in itself. On the one hand, I happily recognize graphic novels as real books. On the other hand, it takes about one hour to read a volume of manga, where the average novel takes about 12 hours. So I set a ridiculously high goal that includes both, but I try to sort my results so I can see how much “regular reading” I did apart from “graphic reading.” I’m probably the only person who cares about my reading data, but since I got to read a lot of interesting books last year, you might want to read on to discover some cool stories.
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