Ushinatta Aki

No Respect for the Dead

lostautumn — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:58:24 +0000

After a lengthy conversation about our previous tea lady at work and how incredible she was, the following conversation ensued.

Me: She sounds amazing, where is she?

Colleague: Dead.

Me: Oh…I was going to say, ‘give her a raise, bring her back’.

*beat*

Me: No pun intended.

I couldn’t resist.

-Aki

Conclusions

lostautumn — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:21:28 +0000

Living on my own gives me lots of time to think about some stuff in my life. In the last little while I have come to two distinct conclusions.

Number one: It’s been said before and it’s still as true as it ever was. No man is an island. No matter how few connections you have, or how little family and friends, your actions will always influence someone. And if the effect is negative, you are liable for it.

Number two: No one else cares about your problems the same way you do. Most of them don’t even care at all. Making the assumption that your problems are as important to the people around you as they are to you is self centred and unrealistic.

These things may seem obvious to some people but the society we live in not only condones selfish and inconsiderate behaviour, it also seems to encourage it. Consider something simple like smoking or playing music on your phone in a crowded street. Both these actions directly influence the people around you without their consent. And yet no one says anything. No one feels as though they are allowed to. Most times, the person smoking or playing music feels it is their right to do so even though what they’re actually doing is infringing on the rights of the people around them.

It’s backwards.

-Aki

Single Living

lostautumn — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:16:15 +0000

There are definite advantages to living alone, chief amongst is not having to check with anyone about anything. Ever. Unfortunately, I can also see this leading to quite selfish behaviour. It also is quite easy to fall out of the habit of keeping in contact with people.

But the worst habit I can see my self adopting would be eating baked beans on toast for dinner too often. I like to cook, I really do (I even have a food blog) but sometimes you come home quite tired and a little bit harassed and you open the cupboard and there they are. Easy to prepare, cheap and still fairly nutritious and filling.

I have a local cafe that is so close to my place that I don’t even bother to lock my front door when I go there. They stock mostly sweets, cooldrink and chips but they also stock, you guessed it, baked beans. This could be a problem.

-Aki

Cat’s in the Bag

lostautumn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:11:23 +0000

So I’m busy researching pictures of animals entangled in plastic bags for a banner which will hopefully make people rethink their use of plastic bags (the campaign is in fact called Rethink the Bag). While there are plenty of these kinds of pictures, it occurred to me that kittens are really emotive so maybe an image of a kitten trapped in a plastic bag will really make people think twice. So I did a search.

The result wasn’t quite what I had in mind.

-Aki

2012

lostautumn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:26:41 +0000

In the past on this blog I have written posts about my new year’s resolutions. Due to various circumstances, this last New Year’s Eve passed unmarked and uncelebrated, which was quite nice in a way. The transition from 2011 to 2012 didn’t feel like a definite date, more like a weeklong cross over.

Despite a rough start, 2012 is looking to be potentially quite a good one. Looking back on 2011, I realise now that it was not the best of years even though it had two very positive movements, both of which have resulted in the positive outlook of 2012.

The most exciting thing to happen this year is, of course, me buying an apartment and becoming a homeowner, a concept which is both thrilling and terrifying. I’m feeling more and more secure in my job as time goes by and my future in this position is starting to look like a certainty.

While I refuse to make resolutions anymore, there are a few things I would like to do this year. I would really like to get my bike license and buy a small bike instead of using the car. I would also like to resume my Japanese and French in preparation for the International Aquarium Congress which is happening in September. Apart from those things I’m just going to concentrate my spare time on making my new home as beautiful and comfortable as possible and find some time for my neglected hobbies.

-Aki

#ilovemyjob

lostautumn — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:13:50 +0000

Someone, I’m not naming names (my mum), was complaining the other day that I don’t update my personal blog enough. I responded by saying that nothing interesting happens to me often enough for my personal blog to be updated frequently. The response was to, predictably, point out my interesting job which I admit, is very interesting.

I always worry about blogging job related stuff for fear that the people I work with will find out about it and take offense. Since having this conversation with the totally unnamed individual (my mum), two things have occurred to me.

One is that the people I work with are pretty amiable and unlikely to take offense at anything (within surprisingly broad parameters too). The second is that the most interesting things that happen at my work have nothing to do with the people. Seeing as I work at an aquarium, they mostly involve animals.

This occurred to me when I thought about the animals I’ve had in my office (yes, in my actually office, sometimes even under my desk). These include:

• A penguin
• Another kind of penguin
• A seagull
• A snake
• A puppy
• The still beating heart of a dead carp (true story)
• A newly shed snake skin
• A leopard toad
• Children

And I’ve only been there 5 months.

-Aki

Obituary

lostautumn — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:24:59 +0000

You may have noticed that my drawing challenge has died an inevitable death. I saw this coming a few days ago when it occurred to me that the drawing challenge was forcing me draw very obscure and uninspiring things. Like my favourite TV show. Or my favourite candy. In a way, the challenge of interpreting the prompts was quite good but it wasn’t fun so naturally I just stopped.

Instead, I’m going to just sketch random things for NaNoDrawMo. I doubt I’ll reach 50 drawings in 15 days, but you never know.

-Aki

Staying Creative

lostautumn — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:49:49 +0000

I was looking back at some of my old art yesterday and was wondering how I found the time to do so much. The answer is obvious of course. As a student and/or slacker (sometimes it’s the same thing) I had copious amounts of time to just sit and draw, often late into the night. Now, the majority of my day is spent at work and when I get home in the evenings, I seldom feel like drawing.

In this situation it’s so easy to give up on your hobbies. I have an art table and light box in my room that I seldom use, but I also refuse to pack away. This would mean giving up on my art and I’m never going to do that. Making yourself practice your hobby (whatever it may be) is something you have to make a conscience effort to do when you’re an adult.

I know eventually I will get back into my art in a serious way but at the moment I’m in a strange place with drawing. I haven’t practiced enough to be happy with what I draw but I have to draw in order to get better. Once I can force myself to practice enough, and I’m happy with what I’m drawing, there’ll be no stopping me.

- Aki

The idea for this wallpaper was not mine but the design is. May it help you be and, more importantly, stay creative:

The Good Stuff Project

lostautumn — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:51:07 +0000

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows about my ongoing quest to write a cookbook. It occurred to me a long time ago that this venture was probably never going to make me any money but that was alright because that wasn’t the (main) reason I wanted to do it. A lot of it had to do with arranging all my favourite recipes in one place, preferably a book, which I could use in the kitchen.

I’ve heard that the author of a book gets a couple of free copies from the publisher and, if this is true, I’d be happy (ish) never to sell a single copy because it would accomplish my goal quite nicely.

Another reason was simply to share my recipes and ideas with anyone who was interested. With this in mind, I decided to start (another) blog and post my recipes and stories and ideas as they occurred to me. I’ve called it The Good Stuff Project because when I first thought about writing a cookbook I said, “It must just be a book full of good stuff.”

And hopefully one day it will be.

But in the meantime, I give you: The Good Stuff Project

-Aki

I don’t want to save the whole world. Some of it is fine just the way it is.

lostautumn — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:19:29 +0000

There is no other way to say it unfortunately. The people at my new job are treehuggers.

However the difference between them and a lot of other (supposedly) environmentally conscious people is that they are proactive in their beliefs. And because of the work they do, they are informed when it comes to choosing which trees to hug.

Call me crazy, but I believe recycling your garbage or switching off unnecessary lights does more for the environment that marching around in a circle with a placard or chaining yourself to a whaling boat. So my immediate superior, who is in charge of sustainability, is very welcome to post WWF adverts and scribble quotes on her door because that’s not all she does.

Personally I don’t have a favourite quote. I would rather be inspired by actions than words.

-Aki