Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

As the war continues to rage on in Ukraine, the international community has used existing international forums to hash out exactly how to respond to the escalating violence. One of these forums is the UN. Certainly, the organization has so far seen some actions, including strong words from the secretary-general in condemning the war itself as well as resolutions that frame the war as a violation of international norms and humanitarian principles on the part of Russia. Yet, overall, the UN has been largely absent in the war, compared to the EU and NATO.

It seems like an endless parade of visual destruction. Videos after videos show destroyed Russian tanks and other armored vehicles strewn by the Ukrainian roadside, some with parts blown off and some even laying upside down. separate videos show aerial videos, of drones unleashing their payloads on the columns of armored vehicles below with devastating impact. News articles, in line with these videos, speak of the latest anti-tank weapons, from Turkish drones to British shoulder-launched missiles, that have slowed down the advance of the Russian army.

Before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics began, the Japanese media provided a very subdued report on the preparation of the Games. Consistent with the politics focus nature of Western media outlets covering the Olympics, the Japanese news media reported on the extent to which the Chinese authorities have tried to execute the Games amidst uncertainties surrounding COVID-19. Any and all sense of Olympic unity that was gathered at the Games quickly dissipated after Russia promptly invaded Ukraine after its end, prompting speculation that China asked Putin to hold off the invasion until the Games ended.

As the continuing Russo-Ukrainian War upends the lives of Ukrainian people, with the world following their plight on both traditional and social media, a much less noticed upending of ordinary lives is also happening in Russia. Western companies, from McDonald's and Microsoft to Accenture and Ikea, are rapidly shutting down their operations, depriving the country's residents of the products and services that they have grown used to since the same firms entered and expanded in the Russian market in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse.

I told myself that I can do this. Yet, the Word document remains blank. “I need a sentence, just a simple idea to get this thing off the ground.” The mind was reaching a state of frenzied desperation, even as the fingers remained motionless on the keyboard. They say they do not accept “garbage” for output. But have they never heard of the saying that one man’s trash is another’s treasure? Maybe what I think is the mundane would be interpreted as extraordinary when read elsewhere.

The elevator going up to the third floor of the nondescript office building in front of Chiba Station was old. The doors closed so slowly after the third-floor button is pressed that I had to wonder if the maintenance work, and indeed if the whole thing will just stop working in its equally slow accent to the third floor that at some point, users will be trapped for hours. The building itself looked to be falling on hard times too, with unidentifiable companies of unknown business scopes occupying its equally unidentifiable office spaces.

My girlfriend is a stunningly successful career woman. A self-trained computer game and blockchain programmer, she is fluent in multiple programming languages, successful as a cryptocurrency trader, and soon to be fairly well-off when the startup she works for and holds stock in it completes its IPO. Her wide networks in the programming world mean she frequently finds herself at the receiving end headhunting messages with highly competitive compensation packages. But with the high demand for her skills, she finds no trouble finding better work anyways even without the headhunters.